The Amazing Uzumaki Clan and the Confused Potions Master
by depressedchildren
Summary: In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.
1. Prologue

**Summary: **In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.

**A/N: **These first few chapters may not sync with what you imagine from the summary, but this is an introduction. I've written the first chapters (alone) seven completely different ways, and scrapped elements of each. The next several chapters are a chronological rendering of the elements I kept from each first chapter version. All the versions were part of the same head-canon (which included asexual and gender fluid characters) but hopefully this presentation makes the altered backstories more understandable ~ with love, depressedchildren

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**Prologue**

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October 31st 1981 was a day no wizard or witch could forget, for it was the day the Dark Lord was defeated by an infant. The Dark Lord had plagued the British wizarding world for over a decade, promoting blood purity and muggle subordination. All who stood in his way eventually were killed or subjugated to his will. It had been a fearful time, but that was at last over because of one small child.

This child was Harry Potter, and to many in the wizarding world, he was heralded as a savior. His mother, Lily Potter née Evans, became a symbol of a mother's love, for she alone had stood against the Dark Lord when he came for her son. Her husband, James Potter, was the one figure in this family the wizarding world could not decide on. Some thought him a coward for leaving his wife and child alone that night, but others saw a man to be pitied for his loss.

For months, James Potter seemed to be a shell of the man he once was. He was hardly ever spotted in wizarding society, and rumors claimed he and his son had moved in with his wife's muggle sister. When Sirius Black was charged with the murder of 13 muggles and Peter Pettigrew, it was the first time the public had seen more than a vacant expression from James Potter. Rumors abounded from Sirius Black's trial, but they were soon overshadowed by a more salacious event.

May 15th 1982 was the last time anyone had seen James Potter. He had been spotted at a number of stores buying obscure ingredients, and withdrawing money from Gringotts in the form of gold. The same day, in Muggle London, Lily Potter's sister, Petunia Dursley was seen buying a number of provisions. The two were seen leaving via apparition from the Leaky Cauldron.

May 16th 1982, muggle authorities raided Petunia Drusley's home at the behest of her now estranged husband.

Apparently, as the _Daily Prophet _later reported, soon after James Potter moved in with the muggle relative, Mrs. Dursley's relationship with her husband began to devolve. Three months into the arrangement, Mrs. Dursley had—according to Muggle records—kicked her husband out of the house. There was an ensuing divorce process, during which time the muggle woman had custody of her muggle child. She denied her muggle husband visitations. When the muggle husband attempted to wrest his son from the woman on May 14th, she had (reportedly) bodily attacked him. Thus, the muggle husband had turned to muggle authorities to sort the issue.

However, as the muggle authorities searched the residence on the May 16th, the muggle woman, James Potter, and their respective children were missing. May 16th soon became the next date no wizard could forget, for it was the day Harry Potter—their savior—disappeared.

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**TBC**

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**A/N: **More to come. I have the next few chapters planned and hope to update within a month if not sooner. Thanks for reading ~ much love, depressedchildren


	2. Chapter 1: The Breakthrough

**Disclaimer: **The _Harry Potter _and _Naruto _series belong to their respective authors. I owe nothing and do not profit from this except in writing experience.

**Summary: **In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.

**A/N: **I have legitimately rewrote the beginning of this story five different ways. I first wrote from the Potters' perspective starting on the 31st, but with all the changes I made to Lily and Petunia's backstories it was a bit jarring. I then wrote (what will be) the next chapter as the first chapter and again that felt a bit jarring. I even thought about keeping to a third party perspective by writing from Rita Skeeter's perspective about the Potter disappearance but quickly scrapped that. I hope the included changes to Lily and Petunia's backstories in this chapter will not be too out-of-left-field ~ much love, depressedchildren

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**Chapter 1: **The Breakthrough

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Ever since James disappeared with Harry, Sirius Black had felt lost. … No, that wasn't true—Sirius had been lost well before that.

Having gone into hiding within the Muggle world—a ploy to distract Death Eaters from the true secret keeper (and what an idiotic idea picking Peter was; Lily had been right all along)—Sirius spent most of his nights drinking and fooling around with muggle women. Without work as an Auror, he had fallen into a bit of a rut and with James secreted away, well he couldn't go out with his best mate. Remus was infiltrating werewolf packs and Sirius couldn't be around Peter lest that tip the Death Eaters off—the irony still boiled his blood. For Merlin's sake, Lily had always guessed Peter would flock to the biggest power, but Sirius' faith in the bond of the Marauders had blinded him.

In the end, if Sirius hadn't been such a screw up, then Peter would never have been selected as Secret Keeper. If Sirius had his life together, James wouldn't have come over on Hollow's Eve to look after him despite the risks. No, if Sirius had been a responsible adult who could handle having nothing to do, maybe things would have turned out differently.

Yes, James would have likely been killed along with Lily, but part of Sirius reasoned that was better than James blaming himself (and Sirius) for what happened. If James had died with Lily, it would have broken Sirius but he had to believe it would have been more bearable than seeing his best mate go mad with grief. More selfishly, Sirius thought that if James hadn't been with him that night then the guilt wouldn't weigh so heavily and he wouldn't live knowing his best mate blamed him. James never said as much, but Sirius knew how much James loved Lily. How could he not blame Sirius?! Hell, he was even the one that pushed having Peter as secret keeper despite Lily's protests.

After his initial rage at Peter and after his trial, Sirius wondered if it would have been better for James to have died with Lily. The few chance times he got to see James, his best mate was barely recognizable. He had bags under his eyes and a fevered sort of glint in his eyes. He wouldn't look Sirius in the eyes and he twitched. James had gone mad in his grief, Sirius knew it.

Then May 16th he got a report passed along from muggle police officers. They altered memories—had to paint James as a crazed satanic (whatever that meant) person who killed everyone in the house before killing himself—because the images in the house could not be fully wiped from the minds of those muggles.

Being a newly reinstated Auror, he shouldn't have been able to see the house, but he had begged his superiors. Part of him wished he hadn't because the sight within that house was just a testament to how mad James had gone—a testament to what a bad friend Sirius had been.

What had once been a living room no longer resembled such. Carpet had been torn up so only subfloor remained. Furniture had been pushed against walls or into doorways. In the center of the living room, had been a large array. Sirius had only seen such large arrays when it came to dark magicks, but their scans had said it wasn't dark. No, that array, it was some _new _kind of magic.

The animagus could still see the design in his mind's eye, and it gave him chills. It was like the work of a madman, or perhaps a desperate man. Large portions of the array were made with pink-tinted wax, which turned out to be that way because of blood. Then there were inky symbols painted throughout the array—tests also showed the ink had blood in it. It had all been _human _blood and the muggle woman's blood specifically. The implications still made Sirius' stomach drop because James would have needed a _lot _of blood. That wasn't even taking into consideration the borderline dark ritual components he had used, which had been rendered to piles of ash after whatever James had done.

Thus began the nine years and counting of research on James' array. During the first year, they had wondered if James had attempted to resurrect his wife and it backfired, but there was no sign of necromantic magicks. After a few more years, experts were able to discern that parts of the array were a mixture of ancient runes and teleportation magicks. The rest of the array was unrecognizable but seemed to be based off of some Indian and Japanese wizarding runes.

Sirius stuck with the case even as the magicks involved went far beyond his understanding. He had to for James, to make up for his failings as a friend. He had to pursue this to the end for Harry, for the memory of Lily, and for his own sanity.

It was only in the two last years that experts proposed James was _perhaps_ trying to leave this world. They speculated he found a way to travel into the past or future because experts were beginning to see elements of time manipulation. But last year, those same experts changed their hypothesis to James leaving this world _literally. _They were beginning to realize that James had found a way to manipulate time _and_ space so that he could theoretically move beyond the bounds of reality. Essentially, James might have traveled to another dimension entirely and took his son with him.

Now it was the annual meeting between Order members, ministry personnel, and the aforementioned experts. Sirius stood beside the current Ministry ambassador, some secretary who was overly fond of pink. She made Sirius feel uncomfortable but he pushed through it for his best mate—the friend he had failed in so many ways.

He opened the door for the woman who gave him what was probably supposed to be sweet smile but turned Sirius' stomach. There were one or two independent scholar type wizards, as well as one Unspeakable. Dumbledore was also in attendance, as could be expected, along with Mad-Eye Moody, and—

"What is _he _doing here?" Sirius snapped as he pointed to Severus Snape. Said wizard stood up with a scowl marring his already grotesque features. The greasy git hadn't changed a bit. Same judging beady eyes, same stringy, unwashed hair, and same ridiculous hooked nose.

"As I said, Headmaster, I don't think I'm welcomed or will help much," Snivellus practically spat.

"Now, now, my boy, you have a unique perspective to bring to this discussion, and Sirius…" Dumbldore trailed off with a disapproving frown directed at the Auror. Sirius sat down a moment later without giving that spineless snake across from him another look.

The Unspeakable began the meeting quickly after everyone had been seated. "Our interests in this mystery vary, but we must remain civil. Any party may bring forward an insight we have not yet ventured down. While some of us are here because of the ground breaking magicks used, others of us are here because such magicks are an unknown threat."

"And others are here to find their missing friend!" Sirius interjected, annoyed the man was talking about this so clinically again.

The Unspeakable sighed. "Yes, Mr. Black, we know. If you have any insight into Mr. Potter's thought process, please share." The man paused for a moment before continuing on. "For those who are new to this meeting, we have discerned to some degree that Mr. Potter has, quite possibly, left this dimension after seemingly creating a new form of space-time magic.

"Mr. Black has confirmed that Mr. Potter's behavior before the disappearance was scattered and frantic, perhaps a bit…unstable. We have approached this matter assuming Mr. Potter was either a mad genius or was unbelievably lucky. Ms. Renati, through her independent research, has a different hypothesis." The Unspeakable gestured for an older witch to stand up.

The witch nervously straightened out her robes as she looked through several sheets of parchment before her. "Ah, yes, well, I was drawn to this case because blood was used in the ritual. I have been studying blood magicks for some time, and also creating a way to discern the blood found at crime scenes." She became flustered as if realizing she forgot something. "I-I mean, after all, some wizards are known to mask their magical signatures through various forms of subterfuge, so blood left at crime scenes could…" she trialed off when her audience gave looks that said they already knew this.

The woman coughed in discomfort but hurried on. "Well, as you all know, blood can contain magic in it still, which is why blood magicks are so powerful." Most of the table gave the woman the same look and she shuffled her papers nervously. "Well, you had all been operating under the assumption that Mr. Potter had sacrificed the muggle sister-in-law to power his array—as many dark wizards have used muggle souls to—" she cut herself off when she realized her audience knew what she was talking about again. "W-well!" Ms. Renati began again. "I dated the blood and found that some of the blood had been collected years before the ritual. Upon further inspection, I also found traces of magic in ah, the 'muggle's' blood." She received several skeptical looks and blinked. "I mean, magic that did _not _match Mr. Potter or his late wife's magic."

Sirius' mouth dropped open. "What?! So she wasn't a muggle?" Sirius shook his head in confusion. Petunia Evans never went to Hogwarts; she couldn't have magic. "Does that mean she's a squib?!" Sirius' mind was racing as he tried to recall every time Lily mentioned her sister but was drawing up few instances.

"That is the question, isn't it?" Ms. Renati replied with a partial smile. "I have been consulting with, ah"—she gestured to the Unspeakable—"well, about the magic powering the array."

The Unspeakable took over at the prompting. "We had early on discerned Potter's magic was not the only magic in the array. There was a secondary magic, which we initially thought was from the ritual components, but it seems Mrs. Dursley helped to power the array."

"And the ritual components bolstered Mr. Potter's magic," Dumbledore added thoughtfully. The old man then frowned. "Petunia Evans and her parents were muggles according to all the tests."

"Excuse me Headmaster, but did you test their blood. Magic is known to be latent in some people and only visible through the blood," Ms. Renati asked quickly, and Dumbledore shook his head slowly.

Sirius tried to wrap his mind around the whole conversation. Petunia Evans was a squib? But if she helped power the array, then she couldn't be a squib because squibs couldn't harness magic in a physical way like that. Plus, if the blood in the array was taken over time, then she hadn't sacrificed herself so the power in her blood alone wouldn't be enough. It was the _soul _which really powered those kinds of magic. This made no sense.

"Severus," Dumbledore prompted softly. Sirius looked sharply over at the greasy git.

The man swallowed after a moment. "I do not believe the Evans family were…normal muggles, or even squibs," Snivellus began slowly.

Sirius wanted to interject, but Dumbledore held up his hand. "Go on," he encouraged.

"For one, her family did not react to her bouts of accidental magic the way most muggles would. Second, when I asked Lily what she thought her accidental magic was…" Snivellus trailed off. "She called her magic an excess of spiritual energy, a term she took from her parents. Apparently," the git began after wetting his lips, "her parents believed in something called 'chakra.'" He coughed as he said the word and his expression began to sour more. "The way Lily had described it, well, magic was an…_imbalance_. The rest of her family had a balance of 'physical' and 'spiritual' energies, which made them 'normal.'"

"Did Mrs. Potter ever say what this 'chakra' did?" the Unspeakable asked.

Snivellus looked down at the table. "Not specifically, but I know her parents were…soldiers and 'chakra' was used to—at the very least—protect themselves, perhaps even fight." The man coughed slightly. "Lily had been…overjoyed to hear that she could duel with her magic, as if that had not been a possibility before."

The Unspeakable hummed after a moment. "Given your testimony and Ms. Renati's research, we can postulate that Mrs. Dursley was not an ordinary muggle. Perhaps this 'charka' is based off of magic, or is a mutation?" he offered. Snivellus' lips pressed into a thin line, as if to say no.

Sirius frowned for a moment. "It's the other way around, isn't it?" Sirius asked his former enemy. Snivellus didn't acknowledge him but didn't deny the statement either.

Sirius exhaled in disbelief. "You know, that explains a lot of Lily's attitude toward magic and the war."

Dumbledore perked up at this and the Unspeakable raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so exactly?" the old Headmaster asked.

Sirius shook his head slightly as he remembered that day he stupidly suggested Peter be the secret keeper. "Just that she trusted the defense she and her sister could make over what you could do, sir," he replied his voice tight. In his minds' eye he could see Lily standing before him with a sober expression _"…anyone can betray their friends given enough pressure."_ She had been right about Peter.

Sirius coughed to dislodge the lump in his throat. "She also always said wizards were 'nonsensical' and fought stupidly—I thought it was a just a muggle perspective but—"

"It wasn't," Snivellus interjected. "Her parents, especially her mother, only approved of pragmatic, offensive or defensive magicks. Given what seemed to be their militant background, I suppose I can understand."

Dumbledore spoke up at this time. He was combing his beard thoughtfully. "Then this chakra is used offensively, but they have no need for a channel, like wands?" Snivellus nodded in response to the hidden question. Dumbledore frowned slightly. "That would imply their magic is more potent but would not manifest in the typical ways."

"That sounds more like an Obscurus," the pink-lady Sirius had come in with commented almost sweetly.

"Or," the Unspeakable spoke up, "it is a magic from a different dimension, perhaps the dimension Mr. Potter has gone off to."

"Mr. and Mrs. Evans were foreigners and believed in a Merlin like figured called, 'The Sage.'" The greasy git said as if he just remembered it. "Lily also implied her parents had been part of a militant group since they were presumably children," Snivellus added with a frown. "She said 'chakra' should be in everything—trees, grass, water, people—but I could only see it in her."

"Excuse me, what was that?" the secretary woman asked in a sweet way that came off threatening.

"What do you mean, see it?" Dumbledore prompted with a frown.

Snivellus rubbed his face. "Those who are more familiar with the internal magicks can sense and even…see their magic and other's. I once was meditating with Lily and noticed she had a secondary source of what seemed like magic," he explained carefully.

It was silent for a long moment. "Would you be able to recognize this secondary energy?" the Unspeakable asked slowly.

"Perhaps, it has been over a decade," the man replied. He seemed troubled by all of this, and Sirius couldn't fault him for it.

Ms. Renati spoke up next, "Theoretically then, you could act as a dowsing rod. If we can create a similar time-space—"

"Of course, then we could open the infinite number of dimensions before us and—" the other expert who had been silent for the majority of the meeting cut in.

"And I could theoretically direct us in the right direction," Snivellus interrupted, though Sirius heard the edge of uncertainty in his voice.

The two experts began nodding energetically before the thus-far-quiet expert spoke up again. "Exactly! My team is close to figuring out how to open a multidimensional gate—if you will—and with someone who can focus the energies, honing in on the exact energy even, well, it won't be blind guesses!"

Dumbledore interjected then, "In such a case, though, Severus would be transported too."

"And I imagine opening such a 'gate' would be taxing and the number of people who could go through would be…limited," Snivellus drawled with a scowl.

Sirius furrowed his brow. "I could go though. If you teach me how to sense that 'chakra' then you wouldn't have to go," he argued quickly. He had to make it up to his friend!

"I would prefer you were the test rat but I doubt there is another person with the same energy on this planet," Snivellus commented in a way that just pissed Sirius off.

"Either way, this is still only theoretical, we have to run tests and do more research," the previously quiet expert stated.

"Agreed," the Unspeakable added as he stood up. "I believe this meeting is adjourned unless anyone has any further information to provide." He paused and turned to the pink-lady. "Thank you Ms. Umbridge for coming here today on behalf of the ministry."

The pink-lady hummed and smiled. "Yes. I am sure the minister will be delighted to hear about how tax payer money is being spent."

A cold sensation fell into the bottom of Sirius' stomach, and a look at the others in the room said they had similar apprehensions.

"Well, I'll be off," Ms. Umbridge said in that disgustingly sweet tone. Mad-Eye Moony frowned suspiciously at the pink-lady and soon followed after her. When the door closed Sirius shook his head.

"We have to figure this out now! What if Fudge revokes funding or-or—!" Sirius exclaimed but couldn't finish the sentence.

The rest of the group remained quiet before the three "experts" began to converse quickly and leave the room. Now it was just Sirius, Dumbledore, and Snivellus.

Dumbledore's expression was remarkably sober for a moment while Sirius stayed rooted in his place in disbelief. "Mr. Snape, Mr. Black, I invite both of you to tea in my office, now."

The slow, deliberate pacing of the headmaster's words made Sirius tense more. A look over at Snivellus said he looked about the same. The three of them quickly exited the Ministry conference room and made for the Floo. A few minutes later, the three of them were in the Headmaster's office with all the previous headmasters staring down at them.

Not long after they were seated did some house-elves give them tea and Dumbledore dive in after erecting a privacy barrier from even the portraits. This was going to be serious.

"It may be time to fill Sirius in on _their _progress," the Head master began.

Snivellus straightened in his seat and shook his head slowly. "Professor…"

"Sirius, I know you and Severus have had your issues in the past, but Severus is on _our _side now." Sirius could only raise an eyebrow skeptically at the old Headmaster's statement.

Sighing, the greasy git began speaking. "I've been informing the Headmaster on Death Eater progress when it came to tracking down Potter. They've made several attempts already based off of Munsligur's work," Snivellus explained quickly. Munsligur was the other expert at the table who had been silent for most of the meeting, Sirius realized.

"Their first attempt ended up as a bloody smear across the room, their second left the man bisected, and the last only left an arm behind. Munsligur feels confident, but there is still a high risk. If…" Snivellus trailed off. "If working as a dowsing rod could improve chances of finding the right dimension, it might improve survival, but…"

"It's still dangerous," Sirius murmured.

"Furthermore," Dumbledore began, "if funding for this study is cut, then the only ones backing the research would be…" The old wizard trailed off and looked at Snivellus pointedly.

Sirius furrowed his brow as he stared down at his lap. "Would you…would you risk your life on the off chance their ritual could work?" he asked quietly.

The other man didn't respond and looked toward a portrait of a former Slytherin Headmaster. "Did it seem to you that Potter was done with this world? Did it seem like he might even return with the boy?" he asked eventually.

"I don't know," Sirius murmured. Snivellus hummed and stood up.

"Let me know what course of action I should take. If you need me, I will be grading papers in my office," the man stated stiffly before leaving. Sirius stared after the man with a new perspective. Maybe Snivel—_Snape_ wasn't such a git?

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**TBC**

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**A/N: **Okay, so most of the exposition has been set up finally, and the next chapter will have several flashbacks to help establish some of the backstory changes mentioned in this chapter. When I originally wrote the meeting scene, it was from Severus' perspective and he was having flashbacks during the meeting to reference (for the reader) the information he mentions. That felt a bit...it made the scene drag. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed and thanking for reading, reviewing, favorite-ing and so forth ~ with love, depressedchildren.


	3. Chapter 2: Reflected in the Moon

**Disclaimer: **The _Harry Potter _and _Naruto _series belong to their respective authors. I owe nothing and do not profit from this except in writing experience.

**Summary: **In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.

**A/N: **Remember when I keep saying I wrote this multiple times? I did a version without flash-backs, but the characters felt OOC. So this is going to have a number of flashbacks to help set up altered character dynamics, but also because thematically it made sense at times.

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**Chapter 2: **Reflected in the Moon

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Severus was anticipating Lucius Malfoy's contact, but it came far sooner than he wanted it to. The term had just ended, and all grades had been finalized. He had barely sat down when the Malfoy falcon delivered the summons during the last breakfast in the Great Hall.

_Honorable Potions Master Severus Snape, _[it began as all of Malfoy's letters did]

_I hope the coming summer holiday will meet you with pleasing expectation. If you could spare an hour or two among your days of research and preparation for the coming year, we would be honored to host you for tea. _

_Admittedly, we have an ulterior motive in inviting you. We are anxious for our young Draco's attendance at Hogwarts and wish him to be prepared for the coming year. As his godfather, we hope you may have insight to share. _

_Ever your confidant,_

_Lord Lucius Malfoy _

Ulterior motive indeed, Severus mused. This was not about Draco, but about Death Eater advances in pursuing Potter. Munsligur likely informed those in their group about Severus' connection to Lily's chakra. The Death Eaters involved would question him about it before asking him to be an experiment. A glance over at the Headmaster suggested the old man could expect as much too.

Severus left shortly after breakfast and began to pack a small trunk. When Lucius Malfoy invited a fellow Death Eater to tea, it usually meant to get to his manor by half past elven. That man always knew how long it took for mail to travel and thus would know Severus got ample time to respond.

Undoubtedly Severus would not be returning to Hogwarts for some time, if at all. Either the Death Eaters would interrogate and keep him around for days on end, or he would die when they inevitably attempted the inter-dimensional ritual.

There was a knock at Severus' door, and he wondered if it was a prefect asking some inane question. "Enter," he called apathetically. If he wasn't dead by the end of the summer, he could prepare for next year's syllabi. Nodding to himself, he summoned the necessary books and several roles of parchment and a writing kit.

"I see you do not anticipate coming back this summer." The gentle words broke Severus' concentration on packing. The headmaster was here.

"Headmaster," he greeted almost awkwardly.

The old man only gave a sad sort of smile. "Do you anticipate them trying the ritual out or just holding you in custody for some time?" he asked quietly as he moved to sit down.

"It may be either case. Regardless, I should have lessons prepared, and should I not…" Severus trailed off and packed a few more books before realizing he hadn't packed much in the way of clothes and set to amend that.

"You are a good man, Severus," the old wizard stated. "Do not throw away your life needlessly. You are an invaluable part of this institution."

"Thank you, Headmaster, but I must also consider what anyone faithful to the Dark Lord would do. Those who truly believed."

"If you die, then that role will no longer matter," Dumbledore whispered.

"And if I survive, it will," Severus' voice cracked for a moment. He coughed and shook his head.

"If I cannot persuade you otherwise, then we must wish for the best," the old wizard stated resignedly. He pulled out a piece of parchment and began to write a letter to Harry Potter. "Anticipating they go through with the ritual and it is a success, perhaps you can give this letter to the boy?"

Severus watched as the old man finished writing a rather sparse letter welcoming the young Potter—presuming he was still alive—to Hogwarts. There was no supply list, only dates of the school term and what the school is. Sealing the letter, he handed it to Severus who quickly hid it within his trunk.

With a wave, he shrunk the container and stowed it in his robe's pocket. The two men did not say goodbye, but such sentiments were passed between them in that silence. Soon, Severus was walking across the Hogwarts grounds to the apparation point and arriving at the Malfoy Manor gates. He waited a moment while an elf called one of its masters. A minute or so passed before the gates swung open and an elf appeared at his elbow.

"Master Malfoy waits for you, sir, in the drawing room," the pitiful creature stated before it popped out of existence again.

Severus hurried his way up the grand drive—a relic from when carriages were high fashion. Soon Severus was entering the grand foyer, and then the drawing room. Lucius was sitting on a chaise with a cup of tea. They greeted each other curtly before Severus took the proffered seat.

"How was the end of the year?" Lucius asked politely.

"More students who cannot brew a proper potion to save their lives. I worry for future generations," Severus lamented.

"Well, I am sure Draco will not be like those disappointments," Lucius partially consoled but mostly bragged.

"Indeed, I am certain he will excel."

The conversation lapsed for a moment and Severus knew the real purpose behind the tea invitation would be brought up. "Our associate, Munsligur, says you have an insight into…well, the Potter's whereabouts."

Severus sighed heavily. "I was naive back then, but I cannot forget what that mudblood told me," Severus murmured. "What she said implied magic was…" he trailed off and shook his head. Lucius gave a similarly disgusted look.

"Indeed, but Munsligur seems to think this provides us with a unique opportunity."

"Yes," Severus agreed. "I would act as a dowsing rod." Lucius nodded.

"They would run tests first before completing the proper ritual. Perhaps have you search through this 'gate' Munsligur created?"

"Of course," Severus agreed once more. He kept his voice calm although he felt anxious. He pushed past his discomfort and continued speaking. "If this ritual were to succeed, then we could confirm if the young Potter still lives and could be a threat to our Lord's return."

"Or," Lucius added, "influence the boy in our favor."

Severus nodded and the conversation lulled again. They soon finished their tea and Lucius stood up.

"I will escort you to their research center," he offered, and Severus could only nod. "I hope you have packed for an extended stay," Lucius suddenly added.

"Of course." At the reply, Lucius' expression relaxed. Severus had read between the lines well enough—of course he was being kept close to the research now that he was a possible lead.

After Floo travel and several side-along apparations, the two men arrived at what appeared to be some abandoned muggle facility built beside the Thames. Severus was introduced to Munsligur's research team—Death Eater affiliated that is—and they soon began running tests. The days blurred into weeks until at last, Munsligur felt confident the ritual would succeed.

Several Death Eaters arrived in full regalia, a sign they did not fully trust Severus or Munsligur's group. They also carried three muggle teens or young adults with them. One after another, the muggles pleaded for their lives but were killed. Munsligur used their blood to draw arrays on the ground; it made Severus' stomach twist.

At one point, Severus was asked to disrobe and they began painting runes on his body in the blood. While his stomach turned during the process, he knew it was necessary to show his allegiance and perhaps even…perhaps even honor Lily after how he had betrayed her. Once the runes had dried, Severus was told to put his robes back on and sit in the middle of the dried array.

"Please focus on that 'chakra' the mudblood told you about," Munsligur asked while correcting or adding a few more runes.

Merlin and Morgana, Severus hoped he wouldn't be splinched or worse. Either this worked or he died.

Severus did his best to focus on his magic. Once he felt its warmth and vibrancy, he began to expand his sight outwards. The souls of the muggles fueling the array did open a "gate" of sorts. It was indescribable. Before him was an open sky—no, it was space filled with twinkling stars of magical energy. They felt so close he could touch them, but it was not the energy Severus had sensed long ago within Lily. His mind extended forward and he searched for that hearty energy and it was as if his mind spread out over this cosmos of other dimensions.

Just as the muggle souls' power began to wane, Severus felt it. He latched onto the energy. It was roiling and thick, he gasped and distantly heard chanting as more magic began to pour into the array. They were going to send him, but there were monsters beneath him, great constructs made of only that 'chakra' energy!

He didn't want to go there, he didn't want to!

Suddenly, he could feel not just his mind but his _body _sent forward to this dimension, this world. Like a comet, he came careening down into a destroyed city as a red sky and moon loomed above the world. Darkness came soon after.

…

Severus Snape woke with a start. He shot up in bed, his heart pounding, and his breathing fast. He looked about the master bedroom of Spinner's End in confusion.

"Severus?" a woman called his name half-tiredly and half-concerned. What?!

Severus glanced over and froze. Lily… His breath caught as he stared into familiar, fiery green eyes.

"Love? What's wrong?" Lily asked with a gentle smile. She leaned up to kiss Severus on the lips. With the kiss came memories. Memories of marrying Lily and having a family with her. His earlier panic subsided and he soon calmed down.

Severus went about his day with Lily and their two daughters, Laurel and Heather. Heather would be starting at Hogwarts this year and they were all so excited. Severus was also working on syllabi for Defense against the Dark Arts. Part of his mind tried to argue that he was the potions professor, but another part of him said he had only ever been the DADA teacher.

Days seemingly passed with Severus in a state of bliss—this was the family he had always wanted, the job and _life _he had always wanted—but it had always been his. It was confusing how part of his mind kept telling him this was a fantasy when everything before him was real and always had been real.

Then the tremors and phantom pains began.

On one gray summer day, Severus woke to his wife in the bed beside him. He allowed himself a brief smile before he prepared to go about his day. He retrieved his wand from the bedside table and gave a lazy wave. His clothes for the day flew from the closet to the space before him. Severus began to stand but immediately fell back down. His head spun and he felt sick as an indescribable pain ran up his right leg.

Lily hummed behind him. "Is everything alright Sev?" she asked sleepily.

"Phantom pains, again" he replied quietly in confusion. What was causing this? He stood up slowly this time and was pleased to see the pain was gone. He then got dressed with a few more flourishes of his wand.

Lily was fully awake now, so she too began to get ready for the day with flicks of her wand. Severus allowed himself a moment to admire his wife. He was inexplicably amazed every time he saw her, but there was also this sort of emotional ache he could not articulate or understand the root of.

"Perhaps we should go to Saint Mungo's?" Lily suggested over her shoulder as her robe sleeve traveled up her arm on its own.

Severus only hummed; he wasn't sure how it would help since it was just phantom pains. So he deflected the conversation by announcing, "I will wake the girls."

Lily smiled fondly. "I am so glad you have summers off," she commented, and Severus felt his lips quirk up at one corner.

He then exited the room and approached his daughters' room. Heather was still asleep but Laurel was sitting in her bed reading. Heather had red hair like her mother, while Laurel had brown hair. Both girls looked much like their mother, including her almond shaped eyes and olive skin, but Heather had blue eyes and Laurel brown.

"What are we reading today?" Severus asked Laurel as he moved to sit at the foot of her bed.

The nine-year-old beamed up at him. "I'm reading _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_," she exclaimed.

Severus felt inclined to smile again, but then the ground began to shake and the world went dark. He began to cough and choke; there was a thick dust in the air. His leg was…it felt like his leg was being crushed and he couldn't breathe through the dust. This was an earthquake and he was stuck in darkness. He was going to die!

"Father, have I done this potion right?" Heather asked and Severus blinked as he looked around him rapidly. He wasn't in an earthquake, what a ludicrous thought he'd just had. No, he was in the basement brewing a healing poultice with his daughters. Knowing them, they'd need it before the day was through. He sorely wished they'd stop climbing dangerous things, but they were too much like their mother.

"Very good. Now we must remove the potion and let it congeal," he instructed. The girls worked together to get the potion off of the fire.

"Do you think I'll get all 'O's when I start at Hogwarts?" Heather asked. She was going to turn eleven in a month, as such she had already gotten her Hogwarts letter. Severus and Lily had briefly considered sending her to Beaux Batons to avoid claims of favoritism from other students at Hogwarts, but decided there was no educational substitute for Hogwarts.

"You better," Severus drawled. "Your mother and I have not raised dunderheads."

The girls giggled. Laurel then turned her puppy dog eyes on him. "Father, could we go to the park after lessons?" she asked.

Normally such manipulations irritated Severus, but this was his daughter and he could not find it within him to say no. "Fine," he said after a long suffering sigh. The girls looked ready to jump up and down in excitement. "But…" Severus added, "only if you finish all your arithmetic and writing practices."

The girls deflated slightly but nodded in consent. "Yes, Father," they chimed.

The earth began to shake again and Severus was in darkness once more. He was choking against the dust while his leg felt as if it had been shattered into a million pieces. Something heavy was pinning that leg down—it felt like all his nerves were on fire. He didn't have enough air in his lungs to scream, but he still managed a strangled cry.

"How was your day?" Lily asked. Severus kept his facial expressions neutral. He was suddenly at a table with Lily and the two children. They were eating dinner and the girls rambled on about their lessons and the park. Something was wrong.

"Oh you went to the park," Lily said with a surprised smile. "Did you know that was where your father and I first met?"

"Ew!" the girls exclaimed. Their mother shook her head.

"We were your age Laurel and we were friends back then," Lily explained while still shaking her head.

Severus gripped his pants' leg under the table. Something wasn't right about this, _any _of this. He had been doubting since the first phantom pain days ago, but something kept his doubt at bay. Now…now with the earthquakes and darkness… Something truly was not as it seemed.

Lily began explaining their first meeting. According to her, her awful muggle sister called her a freak after she made a daffodil appear in her hand. Then Severus taught her what magic was and about Hogwarts. But that wasn't what really happened; although he would not deny he wished that had been their initial meeting. No, that awful muggle sister had never called her sister a freak. Yes, he had taught the woman across from him about magic and Hogwarts, but _she_ had taught him something too. She taught him magic wasn't just magic; she taught him how to see it.

What was happening around Severus was what he _wanted _to be true, but it wasn't because he would never have come back to live in Spinner's End, especially if he came back with a family. Dream job, dream family, but the background was all wrong, the facts were all wrong!

It hit him suddenly: he was trapped in his own mind—trapped in some kind of illusion. His years of legilimency and occulmency training gave him shields and warnings, like living an ideal life in a home that had caused him such misery and grief. Moreover, the earthquakes and blackouts had to be projections of the real-world. The pain in his leg…it was real too. He was pinned under something and likely in a cave-in, but how?! How was this all possible?! No illusion could hold a person if they were in this much pain. No illusion could make one forget reality or their past!

"Love, you've been quiet," illusion Lily commented, and Severus could _feel _her hand on his. Merlin, it felt just like her hand had back in school. Everything felt so real. What kind of illusion was this!?

He shot up from the table and began to walk away, but he found himself back in the dining room with the family he had always wanted, but would never have.

This Lily—this Mrs. Snape—wasn't real. Lily would never be Mrs. Snape because she chose Severus' schoolyard bully. Then…then Severus got her killed. He told the Dark Lord about the prophecy. He was the reason she was dead. So this Lily, this Mrs. Snape, was just a very real illusion meant to keep him placated and trapped.

And where exactly was Severus trapped in the real world? He was in an earthquake and trapped under debris but where? Had he traveled dimensions? Was he trapped within that multi-dimensional gate perhaps?

As the illusions around him kept speaking and doing everything he had ever wanted in a family, Severus tried to push through the illusion, but it was much harder than it should have been. It felt as if there was a presence in his mind and it was _overpowering _him. He could feel the presence like claws in every memory and space in his mind. His carefully crafted mental defenses were nothing to this invading force. It had wrapped itself around his mind and was infiltrating every part of him.

He was losing hold on reality—on what was real. It was tearing his mind apart! He gave a cry against the intrusion and pain.

"Severus," Lily—no _Mrs. Snape—_called in alarm. They were apparently reading in the living room, even though he had been sitting in the dining room before. This illusion jumped like a dream, but how had he not noticed before? Or perhaps he had but he had been seduced by the illusion and ignored it.

The illusory girls looked up at him from the couch where they too read. Really, what children read so obediently—sure he always wished he had children who would love to read but this was far-fetched.

Severus sighed heavily. "I'm frustrated by cost increases in common potion ingredients," he lied to the illusion. Mrs. Snape smiled sweetly and began to lament with him before explaining how relations with such and such country were failing which led to the spike in prices. Severus was beyond the point of listening, even though Mrs. Snape sounded just like Lily had always sounded.

His gaze alighted upon the metal needles holding Mrs. Snape's hair in a bun as she finished talking. Lily had always worn her hair like that when studying back in school and it sparked a memory. "Lily," Severus called for Mrs. Snape's attention.

The illusory wife looked up at him from her book. She looked surprised, as if he had pulled her out of deep thought and she now remembered she wasn't alone. Severus knew this look from his days at Hogwarts; every last detail matched the Lily he remembered, and that was what made this illusion so deadly—it _seemed _so real.

"Lily," he began again with a small smile—a smile he used to assure his enemies he wasn't onto them when he was—"what kind of needles are those again?" They nagged a part of his mind even as the illusion fought to placate him.

Mrs. Snape blinked and pulled one of the needles out. Its sharp tapered point glinted in the candle light. He could see the deadly edge from across the room. "It's a knitting needle, love," Mrs. Snape replied amused.

Wrong. Severus knew in an instant that was wrong. For one, Lily had never been one for domestic duties, _ever. _Secondly, those needles were weapons Mrs. Evans had given her daughter as a parting gift on Platform nine and three quarters their first year. Lily had said it was for throwing and could paralyze or kill a man if it hit the right place. It could also be used to administer poison. Lily claimed she had never been very good at throwing it, although Severus would strongly disagree. She could hit a target the size of a knut from ten feet away. But then, Lily had said her sister could hit the target from thirty feet away, while her parents could hit it from even farther away and while the target was moving. It was another point of inadequacy for her.

Inadequacy…where did that thought come from? Why? He'd need to follow it.

"Of course, how could I have forgotten," Severus replied quietly. "How are your parents, by the way?" he asked after a moment.

"Oh they are fine. They loved the potion you made for them. You know how excited they get about magical things," Mrs. Snape said cheerfully. There was an implied "oh muggles" fondness to her words.

Wrong again. For one, her parents had never marveled at magical things. They approached it critically and pragmatically. He remembered consoling Lily after her mother berated her for wasting her allowance on a "useless bauble any charlatan could make"—his friend had wanted to surprise her mother with the miniature flying griffin. While Lily was still saddened by her mother's disdain for the gift, her father had apparently made up for it. He, Lily, and that horrid sister had apparently tinkered with the animated figurine so that it became a device which puked neon pink paint on unsuspecting victims. In retrospect, that tiny object should not have contained so much paint—the transfigurative property adjustments would have rendered the former enchantment obsolete. Regardless, Mr. Evans was by no means amazed by the bauble, but he helped his daughter find a (juvenile) use for it. So to say her parents would be delighted by some whimsical potion was inaccurate and an exaggeration.

Secondly, Mr. and Mrs. Evans were dead. The Dark Lord had sent Death Eaters after the Evans family during their search for Potter, Lily, and her son. Some idiot used Fiend Fyre, and got everyone in the house killed. However, Severus had this sinking feeling Mr. and Mrs. Evans had killed most of the hit squad before the fire had even been lit. He didn't know why he felt this way but he did. There was something strange about the Evans family he couldn't quite remember.

"Lily," Severus addressed as he searched for what the illusion was making him forget. "Would you…would you say your parents were hard on you?" he asked at last. He was thinking about inadequacy again.

Mrs. Snape hummed, "Well they wanted me to succeed as a witch, so perhaps a little." The illusion shrugged. "Why do you ask, dear?"

She wasn't entirely wrong, but she wasn't completely right either. Severus frowned some more. "Oh, I just wonder if we are being hard on the girls at times," he lied smoothly. The imaginary girls began to whine and assure him they were doing no such thing. Severus tuned them out with some difficulty.

What was false and what was true in what the illusion said? The truth was the Evans parents wanted Lily to succeed in school but not because they wanted her to be successful witch. No, her mother was too pragmatic for that. Mrs. Evans wanted what? He was remembering something…

Severus remembered sitting in an alley after some neighborhood kids had chased him. Some of the older neighborhood women were sitting on the stoop and in the windows gossiping. What had they been saying…? It was about Mrs. Evans—Ah!

_"Have ye heard about those Evanses?" one woman asked another. _

_"Perhaps," one woman said as she bounced her colicky child on her lap. "Is that woman beating her kids again?" _

_"Apparently those weren't beatin's," the first replied with a snort. "Protective Services were after 'er the other day."_

_"Yet they ignore the Snapes, Wilkenses, and Jamesons," a third woman piped in sarcastically. "Goes to show you what they think of Spinner's End."_

_Neither of the other women commented, and the young boy shrunk in on himself. He knew the other families talked about his family, but it still hurt and made him angry. If they knew, why didn't they do anything about it? Why did they have to broadcast his problems but not help out?_

_The first woman spoke again, "Well, anyways, Mrs. Evans right blew 'er lid. She was near unintelligible from what I 'ear."_

_The third woman snorted and sneered, "Well they're _foreigners_, you know."_

_"They don't look it," the second woman said slyly._

_"They _sound _it," the third commented. _

_"Can I get on with me story?!" the first woman demanded. The other women didn't say anything and the first continued. "Anyways, from what I 'ear, those beatin's were trainin'. She don't want her children to be taken advantage of. She wants 'em to fight."_

_"So those runs that left the tomato looking one fainting were training?" the third woman asked sardonically. The little boy knew what the woman was talking about. He has seen the youngest girl lagging behind her family as they ran—_

Severus nearly gasped. The day he saw Lily running with her family was the first time he had seen her! He-he remembered! The illusion as trying to fight him, to overwrite the memory with the idyllic one Mrs. Snape had told. The truth was, Severus wasn't some magical knight swooping in to teach Lily the proper way of things. That wasn't how it had been at all. He had sat back and watched like a coward as that family forced Lily to be something she wasn't.

He held on to the memory for dear life and let it play across his mind.

_He was at the park near Spinner's End. He had run off to be free of his father and mother and their stony, cold indifference. He had just crested a hill when he saw a most peculiar sight: the Evans family on a run. He had heard of the odd family in town, but was not sure what constituted odd. At first, his mother thought the family might be like them, but they were muggles—strange muggles, yes, but muggles nonetheless._

_The boy lay flat against the ground and watched as a blonde haired woman with too much neck and stern features ran ahead. She had a pinched sort of beauty that reminded Severus of his mother, and the woman's cold stoic resolve strengthened the resemblance. _

_"Lily, be more like your sister," the woman snapped back at a small red haired child lagging behind and panting heavily. Undoubtedly she was telling the redhead to emulate the blonde child with similarly too much neck. That girl was keeping pace with her mother despite her clear over-exertion. The girls' father, who had dark red hair, fell back slightly to where his lagging child had stopped running. _

_"Please, my child, you must run if you ever want to be as strong as your parents. Do you not want to honor us?" he asked her in what could have been a gentle manner but was not. _

_The red haired girl had an equally red face as she panted and tried to catch her breath. "Y-Yes!" she agreed. She took a few more steps before stumbling down to the ground. She lay there panting heavily. _

_Her father sighed in disappointment and crouched beside her. His next words were unintelligible, some strange language which accounted for Mr. and Mrs. Evans' accents. The man frowned when the girl did not move or acknowledge his words beyond curling her fists in the grass. The man then shook his head and patted her on the back before jogging back to his wife. The blonde child began to slow once her father caught up, and she looked back at her sister uneasily. She said something in the strange language to her parents who only shook their heads and continued running. _

_The red haired girl must have overheard what her sister said; however, and so now sat up with tears running down her face. The wind began to pick up around her. The eavesdropping boy recognized the bout of accidental magic for what it was as a small sort of vortex begun to spin around the young girl. Her magic kicked up the dandelions and loose grass along with her long red hair, which parted into five separate sections._

_The Evans family paused and stared at the young girl, but only the blonde child looked excited. The parents looked confused but not uneasy or troubled like Muggles should look when confronting magic. _

_"I am not weak!" the red haired child screamed. "I will be strong. I will!"_

_Her parents smiled. _

_"Good. Embrace the stone, embrace the whirlpool," the mother stated in a clipped way. "Never stop fighting, and never give up so pitifully again," she announced, which only made the red haired girl give a scream and start running again before her body failed her once more. _

_"Mother, let me help her," the blonde child asked. _

_"No Petunia," her mother interjected. "If we always help her stand, she will never know how to stand on her own. That is the way of my people." _

_"Your people are too harsh, love," the husband remarked. "Did not the Sage see wisdom in learning from others?" _

_The woman scoffed. "And where did the Sage go, beloved? He abandoned us and we had unending war. You become strong by weathering the hardships like the mountains."_

_The husband looked heavenward. "Petunia, child, help your sister this once," he ordered. Petunia nodded and moved to her sister's aid. _

It was like a dam had unlocked. He could remember when he finally met Lily. He could remember what she taught him about magic. The illusion clawed at his mind, trying to keep hold of him, but Severus was soon losing himself in the next memory.

_"Come on Lily!" Petunia called behind her. She was running rather quickly across the grassy field. Lily was stumbling behind her, red faced and sluggish. _

_"I-I can't Tuney!" Lily cried before stopping and resting her hands on her knees. _

_"Come on Lily. You've barely done two kilometers," Petunia replied. A young Severus frowned at the units; his father hadn't explained metrics and his mother homeschooled him. _

_"But I'm tired, Tuney," Lily panted out. _

_Petunia frowned but still jogged back to Lily's location. "Fine, let's stretch," she compromised. The girls then dropped into crouches while stretching out one leg. They stretched for quite some time, and even contorted their limbs in ways that had to be painful. Well, given Lily's grimace, they were painful. _

_"The creepy boy is watching us again," Petunia drawled. "What do you want, ero-kun?" she shouted in his direction. Severus jumped, startled from his unintentional hiding spot. _

_"Petunia!" Lily chastised while blushing. "Don't say those things when you don't know the person." _

_Petunia rolled her eyes before turning to the still startled Severus. "Come on down kid," she called to him while making a beckoning motion. The girls were now stretching their legs while sitting down. _

_The boy cautiously walked down the hill toward the Evans girls. Still sitting, Petunia began running through these patterns with her hands—like some kind of sign language. She prompted Lily to do the same, and the younger girl only frowned before reluctantly agreeing. It was clear the older sister was more dexterous, or perhaps Lily found the actions to be a chore. _

_"What's your name, creepy kid?" Petunia asked curtly but not actually interested in the answer. _

_"Tuney," Lily chastised again before giving Severus the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. "Sorry about Tuney," she excused her sister. "She can be mean but I think it's cause she tries to be tough like mum." _

_Severus ducked his head, though he wanted to smile at the comment, especially since Petunia looked offended at the suggestion. "My name is Severus Snape," he introduced himself quietly._

_"Lily Evans." _

_"I know," Severus responded without thinking. Petunia gave her sister an "I told you so" look. Severus grimaced slightly. _

_"I-I meant, your family is well-known around the neighborhood," he said, but when both girls sobered, Severus realized it was the wrong thing to say—especially since the protective services incident happened not two weeks ago. Severus was even surprised the family got a second chance given what he had heard._

_"What was that supposed to mean?" Petunia asked acidly, while Lily stared solemnly at the grass._

_Severus coughed while looking elsewhere. Severus could actually feel the cold glare from the older blonde. "I just meant—" he cut himself off. Everything he was thinking of saying in this situation was wrong. He could say there was a lot of talk around the neighborhood, or that the family was strange, but all of those options (while true) were insulting. He really just wanted to be friends with this magical person. _

_"Well what was it, huh?" Petunia asked. Her face was getting red in anger. "What did you want to say you freak?" she snapped before standing up and running away in anger and tears. _

_Lily just remained seated where she was and flinched. "You think we're strange," Lily accused quietly in the wake of her sister's retreat. _

_"Y-yes, but everyone thinks my family is strange too," he whispered back. _

_"Mum said those social workers should go to your home not ours," Lily murmured. "Something about how 'those Snapes do much worse to their kid.'" _

_Severus stared at the grass. "They don't hit me," he mumbled, but that was partly a lie. When his dad got drinking, things got bad, but it was the yelling that was the worst. He hated being called a mistake; it took several drinks before his father started saying that, but it was still frequent enough to hurt and make him believe it was true. Then again, Mum didn't have to drink to say it. She hated how her family had thrown her out because of him, so she held a silent resentment. Despite that, his mum still loved him somehow. It was confusing and it hurt so much. _

_"They're not hitting us. It's play fighting, a practice for when we get in real danger," Lily defended sullenly. _

_"Do they really expect you to fight?"_

_Lily only nodded in response and it was quiet for a moment. "Mum had to fight her whole life, Dad too," Lily whispered after a moment. "Mum didn't come from a fancy family like Dad. Her parents died shortly after she was born and she grew up in an orphanage. The matrons made the kids train and learn to fight so they could join the army."_

_"What?" Severus couldn't believe what he had been told. _

_"Everyone joins the army when they're kids. Dad was trained since he could walk by his family and joined the army even earlier than mum. They only know how to teach us how to fight, ya know?" Lily mumbled. "They just want us to be able to take care of ourselves."_

_"What army were they in?" Severus asked. Lily bit her lip and looked away; she wasn't going to answer him. Perhaps she had even said too much? _

_Severus looked out at the horizon. There were a row of crooked roofs on top of tall narrow buildings—that was Spinner's End. It was like a dark smudge on the horizon. He had thought of his first official meeting with Lily for days within that grim house, but this wasn't how it was supposed to go. He needed to turn this around. _

_"I saw you the other day. Did you know the wind picked up around you? Do you know what you did?" he asked hurriedly._

_"Mum said my spirit overwhelms my physical energy. I'll never be able to fight like that, she says." _

_"Spirit? It's _magic_."_

_She looked up at him skeptically. "Magic?" she repeated before scoffing. _

_"It's true! I have magic too, and someday we'll both go to Hogwarts," Severus said animatedly. _

_The girl looked at him skeptically. "Magic's not real," she retorted. _

_"But spirit is?" he challenged. _

_"Everyone has spiritual energy, just like everyone has physical energy. When they're combined and balanced you have chakra," she explained. _

_"What's this chakra thing?" It was Severus' turn to be bewildered. _

_Lily folded her arms in annoyance and then blew some air up at her bangs. She was debating something, likely whether it was safe to say this. "I told you what chakra is already. It's the energy we all have," she said again. Lily then pointed to just below her navel and then at her head. "These are two main chakra points. You have them too but boys have one here," she gestured to above her navel. _

_"If you close your eyes and feel the chakra in your stomach, then you can sense it in other people too. You just have to spread the focus out," Lily stated. She then closed her eyes and folded her legs. She breathed slowly, so slowly Severus was afraid she'd stopped breathing. This continued for a few minutes before she gasped and shot her eyes open. _

_Lily leaned close to him and stared Severus in the eyes. "You have too much spiritual energy too," she exclaimed excited. "It's all centered here," she poked him in the forehead. _

_"Wh-what?" Severus stuttered. He was too shocked to say much of anything else. _

_Lily frowned and sat back. "Close your eyes and breathe like I am. Focus on your belly and the energy there."_

_Severus frowned but closed his eyes and tried. He didn't know what he was supposed to feel for but he did everything else Lily asked for. He was itching to move when he felt something—no _recognized _something inside of him. It was warm and familiar; it was his magic. He grasped hold of it and his breathing slowed even more. He kept hold of his magic and slowly spread his awareness. In the darkness, Lily lit up. He could see an outline of her, but it was her forehead that drew his attention. It glowed vibrantly and when he looked for her magical core, it shimmered the same way. But there was another pool of energy within in her that was much smaller. _

_Severus frowned and shook his head. "Lily, that's our magic," he whispered, and Lily cocked her head to one side._

_"So?" Lily said with a sigh. "Chakra, or whatever you call it—we can't use it."_

_Severus scowled. "Yes we can! Hogwarts is a school and it'll teach us how to use it," he argued. However, Severus frowned when he looked around them. It was nearly dark out—had so much time really passed? _

_"A school where I can learn how to use my excess spiritual energy?" Lily repeated to herself. "What can I do with it?" she asked. _

_"Anything. You can make things out of thin air, you can make things float and levitate—you can even duel with it."_

_Lily began to smile, "You have to tell me everything." _

Severus felt himself pulled from the memory and could feel the illusion trying to dig into him again. It was going to distort this memory soon if he continued to dwell in it. He could feel the illusion trying to twist his mind to keep him trapped. He'd be damned if he let it. So deeper still the wizard went into the memories he had blocked. Memories which had been saved from the illusion's placations. These were untouched memories he had locked away out of grief or survival.

_Severus' mother had seen him to the station and then hung to the far back of the platform. She was keeping out of sight of the other families lest it earn her ridicule. Severus knew his mother might not even stay to see him on the train if an old classmate saw her in her worn robes._

_So, to save his mother humiliation, he stuck close to the Evans family. No one prominent in the wizarding community knew his mother had a child from a disgraceful affair with a muggle—well, beside the other Princes. Thus, Severus figured if he kept close to the peculiar, not-quite-muggle family, he would save his mother much grief—grief she might have turned back on him. _

_Mrs. Evans was saying something rapidly in that foreign language. Lily stood before the woman stiffly with her arms at her sides. When the woman finished what sounded like a series of orders, Lily nodded her head curtly and said a monosyllabic response—"high" it sounded like. The woman then handed Lily two long, sharp, metallic needles. They both nodded and Lily used the needles to put her hair up. _

_Mr. Evans, the kinder of the two, then knelt before Lily and smiled gently. His blue eyes crinkled at the corners. He was saying something in that language too. It was hard to tell based on the intonation, but Severus imagined it was encouraging at first before he ended his speech solemnly. Lily nodded again and said something in their language. Mr. Evans smiled again and ruffled her hair. Severus' questioning look earned him a vague smile from Mr. Evans before he too reached out to ruffle Severus' hair. The boy managed to shrink away from the contact and Mr. Evans chuckled. Petunia Evans just stared coldly at Severus before moving over to her sister's side and holding her hand. _

_"I want to go with you. You shouldn't be on your own," she whispered while still giving Severus a distrusting look. He gave her a glare of his own. _

_"Severus will be with me Tuney," Lily replied just as quietly and even gave Severus a slight smile. He softened his expression briefly. _

_That horrid sister scoffed. "He's a weak, spineless civilian. He'll crumple at the slightest pain," the girl retorted. Severus began glaring at her again and the older girl gave him a superior look. _

_Lily sighed. "Why won't you two get along?" she asked tiredly. _

_"Because he's pathetic," Petunia replied acidly. Severus bit his tongue but he wanted to lay out all his insults at the horse-faced girl. _

_Lily gave her sister a displeased look. "Tuney," she chided before retracting her hand from the blonde girl. That horrid sister tried to reclaim Lily's hand but she was already coming over to Severus' side. She grabbed his hand in an encouraging manner and smiled. "Let's do our parents proud and bring them honor," Lily murmured. _

_"As you've promised," her father chimed in with his awkward speech. Lily nodded her head again solemnly. Mr. Evans smiled again and Mrs. Evans looked at the wizards and witches around her with a calculating and distrusting edge to her gaze. Her muscles looked tensed and she appeared ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. Mr. Evans looked more relaxed, but there was a similar deadly edge to his stance. _

_There was a loud noise behind them and the group looked over—the children starting while the adults turned casually as if already aware. _

_"James Potter, you are _not _taking these-these-these _pranks _to Hogwarts!" a woman with wild salt-and pepper hair shouted at a boy with similarly unkempt black hair. The woman appeared almost too old to have a child just now attending Hogwarts. _

_"You heard your mother, son," a similarly old man said seriously beside the woman. He had thick glasses and knobby knees his checkered muggle suit showed off—they must not have taken the floo. The older witch smiled in a self-satisfied way as the boy turned out the pockets of his muggle clothes and handed the items over to his father. _

_"Ah, cousin!" the witch said as she caught the eye of Lady Black. Severus shrunk back slightly; a cursory glance told Severus his mother had fled already. The two Black women began to converse while the wizard and boy turned back to each other. _

_"I expect you to write me many letters about your pranks," the father said as he handed the boy's items back. He even shrunk them to fit more discretely into his pockets. The two then straightened up and acted innocent when the matriarch called them over to greet Lady Black. _

_The Evans family scoffed at the display. Mrs. Evans showed a greater level of reproach. "So juvenile," she commented in disdain. _

_"Indeed," Mr. Evans agreed while holding out a scroll to Lily who looked at it with wide, delighted eyes. "I expect our daughter will be far superior and know how not to brag." _

_Mrs. Evans' eye twitched before she sighed. "If you must prank," she consented awkwardly, "I expect one a week, all untraceable."_

_"Of course mother, I am not an amateur," she replied sweetly while glancing at the Black affiliated boy who was staring back at them with wide brown eyes behind thick wire-framed glasses. "Or an idiot," she added pointedly before turning away from the boy. _

_Mr. Evans eyes flashed with mischief as he caught the exchange. "I trained you too well to be one," he replied in his awkward English. _

_Mrs. Evans sighed again and muttered something in her native tongue. Mr. Evans chuckled and kissed her cheek while saying a reply. The way the girls paled suggested it was less disgusting and more horrifying. _

_Severus looked to Lily again for a reply, but Lily just shook her head. Her hand was trembling slightly. "You don't want to know," she whispered. Severus pressed her with a look and she leaned closer to him. "It involved the decapitation of a small village in Cambodia." _

_What? How as a whole village decapitate—ohh. The train sounded and they hurried off with their trunks. That horrid sister helped put Lily's trunk away while Severus struggled along with his own. He then watched as the two sisters spoke to each other rapidly in a mix of English and their native tongue. There were tears now that they were out of their parents' sight and many hugs. Eventually the final warning whistle blew and that awful sister left without a second look. Lily wiped her tears away and sat down beside Severus. They stared out at the train platform and waved goodbye to the Evans family as the train began to pull away from the station. Merlin those adults were frightening. _

Yes, he was remembering. He and Lily had had conversations about her parents. They were…they were mercenaries. They worked on the Muggle Black Market, and it had always saddened Lily and her sister, but at the same time, they grew up knowing their parents killed for a living and were expected to learn the same. That was until…until what…seventh year, yes, that was it! He dove toward the memory as the illusion tried to reclaim him.

_Severus had watched Lily get up to leave with Potter right behind her. He kept his expression neutral as he watched the two of them leave. Lily was visibly shaking, and Severus knew why. She had received a letter and it was only Tuesday. Since first year, Lily only got mail from family on Sundays. She had received a letter on Sunday so it was not the case that the letter was late. The last time Lily had received a letter during the middle of the week, it was because her parents hadn't checked in and were trying to avoid capture from the Italian Government. A contractor had given them faulty information and the insurgents they were with were stopped. They managed to flee but barely and hadn't been able to contact their daughters that whole time. _

_Severus left the table a minute later and quickly slipped through the halls. He knew where Lily would go to read the letter. He soon found himself under the spiral staircase leading up to the astronomy tower. A quick notice-me-not, and eavesdropping spell later, Severus listened in. _

_"Lily, it's not the end of the world," Potter reassured. _

_"But isn't it?! They're being called war criminals James, by the same people who screwed them over with that Bay of Pigs, shit!" Lily exclaimed frantically. "They're just doing their job!"_

_"Well their job is awful, Lily, you realize that, yeah?"_

_"It's all they've known James." _

_"And all Death Eaters know is hating muggles, and they're bad," Potter retorted. _

_Lily made a defeated noise. "I know, but…this time was different. They were there to protect people. They were helping the little guy, teaching them guerrilla warfare, they were-were—"_

_"—not being altruistic," Potter cut in. "Lily, I love your parents but they are mercenaries, and scare me." _

_"Yes, they were interfering because a client wanted to know if they were good at training militant groups but they were also—" Lily cut herself off with a heavy sigh. _

_"They've had problems before and got out of it just fine. Like you said, Bay of Pigs things," Potter reassured her. _

_"I know, but they got out before the rest of the insurgents were captured; this time they got caught fleeing and their former contractor from that Bay incident remembers them." _

_"I never liked Americans," Potter commented, and Lily snorted slightly in laughter._

_"Careful, apparently they have spies everywhere," Lily joked. _

_"Your parents having been two of them," Potter retorted wryly. Severus then heard some ruffling and Lily sigh. Severus imagined they were hugging. _

_"You know my parents only take jobs they can be proud of," Lily murmured. "While they might be mercenaries here, they were loyal and dedicated soldiers for their homelands."_

_"I know, but they still kill people for a living," Potter said quietly again._

_"Mum does, Dad avoids it."_

_"Another reason I like him better," Potter commented, and Lily snorted again before sobering. _

_"I don't know, it was always different hearing it from them. Back home, they killed to protect, they fought to protect, and while it was sometimes for money, it was always to help the village. They try to follow the same principles here, but we're the village now, our family is." _

_"I know it's going to be hard for all of you to accept, but maybe this is for the best. Your parents can go into hiding and enter a retirement of sorts. Merlin, I bet Professor Dumbledore might even want them to be tactical advisors," Potter reasoned, and Lily gave a short laugh again. _

_"My parents would enjoy it, if only to rub in how nonsensical wizard warfare is," Lily said with a sigh. _

_"I'm just afraid, James," Lily murmured a moment later. "Tuney was going to go on their next mission and become a full-fledged apprentice. Now she's going to be stuck at that miserable drill company as some secretary. She hates it there, and this walrus keeps making passes at her." _

_"A walrus?" Potter repeated slowly in confusion. _

_"It's what we call him. He has this mustache like a walrus and the stubby legs and arms of one too. But Tuney says he's an idiot and easy to manipulate. She's afraid she might have to marry him to get suspicion off of her with mum and dad being exposed in Mexico."_

_"Your parents should just avoid that continent," Potter suggested, and Lily gave another curt laugh. _

_Potter sighed after a moment. "Look, I have more land than I can think of what to do with." There was tightness to Potter's voice that recalled recent grief. Ah yes, his parents had recently died. "There's an estate in Lancaster they can have; I'll draw up the documents, alright?"_

_"It will still devastate them," Lily murmured. _

_"Perhaps it's time they moved past all the killing and leading insurrections? They can enjoy a nice, quiet retirement" Potter suggested. _

_"Dad has been saying how he'd like to work on his fuinjutsu treatise, and mum has been wanting to start poison manufacturing since the stock on the Black Market is miserable," Lily conceded. "It would also keep them out of danger…" _

_"Exactly, no more worrying about whether a letter will come or not. No more worrying about if they're Prisoners of War or lost at sea." _

_"I'll try to convince them," Lily mumbled. _

_"That's all I'm asking." They then began to go down the stairs._

_Severus quickly moved away from the spiral staircase and ducked into a doorway. Thankfully with the notice-me-not charm, Lily and Potter walked past him, although he saw Lily reach out and…_

_Potter squeaked and pulled at the back of his robes as he moved slightly farther away from Lily. She hurried after him while laughing. _

_"You're as bad as Sirius!" Potter exclaimed as he tried to dodge Lily's hands. She was trying to pinch his backside again. Severus did not need to see this. _

_"Oh?" Lily asked with a smirk. "Sirius pinches your cute bum too?" Potter blushed brightly._

_"You know that's not what I meant!" Potter exclaimed as he continued to try to dodge her before he was pinned against a railing. He gave another squeak as Lily got handsy. _

_"I know what you meant," she teased as she squeezed his backside. Severus wanted to be gone, but he was afraid his notice-me-not charm wouldn't get him past Potter, who was now frantically looking for an exit. _

_Lily eventually relented. "Look, I am not as bad as Sirius. We're just not all as frigid as you," she teased. _

_"I am not frigid," Potter defended himself, and Lily rolled her eyes. _

_"Uh-huh, which is why we haven't shagged yet." Lily sighed and leaned her head against Potter's chest. "Do you not find me attractive or something?" she asked quietly and almost insecurely. _

_Severus froze. He felt parts nauseous and hopeful. Lily and Potter hadn't…then that was good wasn't it, but he didn't want to hear about their sex life!_

_Potter's expression softened and he smiled sadly. "Lily…" he began before faltering._

_Lily shook her head. "What am I supposed think James? Do you find me attractive? Because either you do, or you don't and you're using me for whatever reason."_

_"What?! NO! I'd never use you, Lily. I just…" Potter trailed off and looked ashamed. "I'm just…I don't want to ruin the intimacy we already have, you know?"_

_"It won't ruin it," Lily reassured softly before her expression fell. "Or is there something you're not telling me. Do…I mean, I know back in fourth year," she began slowly before shaking her head. _

_Potter frowned. "What about fourth year? When you almost died?" Lily looked away and nodded slightly. Potter's frown deepened. "Lily," he began, "I was devastated, but that's when I also realized how much I love you." _

_Lily shook her head. "Really because I thought you were in love with Severus back then." _

_Potter dropped his head forward. "Yeah, I guess I thought I did, but not the kind of way you mean…I mean," he sighed heavily. "I love you romantically like that now, but back then I wasn't attracted to _any_one, not even you." Severus did not want to be here._

_Lily pulled back and looked almost affronted. "One, you still pursued me; and two, you just confessed to loving Severus." She counted off on her fingers. _

_Potter rolled his eyes. "You both almost died and I realized how much I cared about you both as _friends_. So yeah, I pursued you because you were in my house and because that way you both would be my friend, you and Snape," Potter muttered like a petulant child._

_Lily stared at Potter for a long moment before she began to smile. "Oh James Potter," she murmured, "sometimes you are just too pure for this world." _

Severus was half tempted to just let the illusion reclaim him at that point but then he would have to fight for control again. Moreover, this memory brought up another one he had tried to forget. It was fourth year and he recalled Potter saying he had wanted to be…be Severus' friend.

_Lily was going to die. She was going to die and there was nothing Severus could do. He didn't even care about the house points he lost, he didn't care if his peers saw him crying over a mudblood. Lily was going to die!_

_He had been discharged from the hospital wing and told to go to breakfast but he couldn't. He slumped down against the wall and stared down at his still bandaged hand. _

_He shouldn't have agreed; he should have stood up against Lily's plan. Severus brought his knees up to his chest and hid his face. As he was wrapping his arms around his legs, the bite on his hand pulsed in pain. Acromantula…he was such an idiot!_

_Lily wanted to explore the Forbidden Forest, and Severus agreed even though it was stupid and reckless. They came across that nest and were chased. Severus got bit and then his body started to seize up. He fell, and the spiders were nearly on them. Lily screamed and—and Severus couldn't describe what exactly happened next. These chains ripped out of her body, but they glowed and pulsed with magic. The chains tore the encroaching spiders asunder, but not ten seconds later the chains faded and Lily collapsed unmoving to the ground. There were more spiders coming, and Lily wasn't responding so he shot an S.O.S. signal into the sky with what strength he still had. _

_Now Lily was unconscious and her magic imperceptible—even when he focused on the energies inside of her, they were barely flicker specks. If she survived, she may end up being a squib, and it was his fault. He should have stopped her. He should have—_

_Severus jolted when he felt an arm over his shoulder. He looked over to see…Potter?! What the hell was he doing? _

_"What do you think you're doing?!" Severus exclaimed as he tried to move away from the other boy. Potter frowned slightly and looked down at his crossed legs. _

_"I thought you could use a hug," he replied naïvely. "Lily must still be unconscious, huh?" he asked quietly. Severus glared at Potter who sighed. "I stopped by to visit Remus yesterday, and you were both sleeping in there; I hoped…" he trailed off with more of a frown. _

_"Why do you care? What do you want? What makes you think you can touch me?" Severus snapped. _

_"We're friends and you comfort your friends when they're sad," Potter explained like it was the most logical thing in the world, but it wasn't. _

_"How in Merlin's name are we friends?" Severus snapped. _

_"Well, you and Lily prank me back. A friend who pranks you back is the best friend to have," Potter stated. At Severus' baffled look, Potter explained himself further, though he sounded like he was repeating something he had been told many times. "When a friend can point out when you are being an idiot and get even with you, then they will stand by you through all things. Even your most stupid actions."_

_"You're an idiot," Severus muttered in disbelief. Potter beamed. _

_"See, like that!" the boy practically cheered. "Lily always calls me an idiot too and when we prank each other we push each other to be better and more creative. Ya know, like what true friends do. They make you be better!"_

_"How can you possibly be this much of a dunderhead?" Severus snapped. "Lily is not your friend and neither am I. We get even with you because that's what you do when someone constantly tries to humiliate you. You get even, first rule of Slytherin. Second rule, don't associate with blood traitors," Severus sneered and hurriedly stood up. _

_Potter was frowning. "But…" It seemed like the boy's world perspective was twisting. "Lily always says it's in good fun."_

_Severus scoffed. "We've been trying to take you down a peg. Your arrogance is unbearable." _

_"Oh," Potter mumbled. He stood up then and left. For a moment, Severus felt…something, but that was quickly overshadowed by his concern for Lily which he could focus on again now that that blasted Potter was gone. _

Over the next several weeks, Lily recovered and Potter was despondent. Then Black had gotten involved and began to bully Severus every chance he got. Then Lupin and Pettigrew had joined in while Potter just stood back vacantly. It was worse than what Severus had experienced before and he had lashed back as best he could but it wasn't the same without Lily. Lily had been in the hospital wing most of that year. Merlin, she had asked Professor Dumbledore to not send any health notes back to her parents, and begged to keep up with her studies even though she could barely move and couldn't perform the simplest of charms with her wand. It had been heartbreaking and terrifying.

Severus felt numb as he recalled that moment in his life. Lily had almost died and Severus had been ostracized by everyone else but her. With her practically a squib, he would soon be by himself at Hogwarts without any allies, and so he had begun…he had begun to associate with the purebloods in his house, and less with Lily. He had begun to repeat their propaganda, and even orchestrated some devastating counter attacks against Gryffindor, which escalated things with Potter's friends.

Lily had gotten better by the end of the year, but the damage was done. He was distanced from her. If he tried to associate with her, it got worse for him within his house. Potter's goons hadn't let up on their pranks, and without the protection of his house, he was vulnerable. Lily had tried to help him, but he had pushed her away because what if she was taken away. What if he helped her do something reckless again and she died for real this time.

Then there was fifth year and…and Lily had begun to associate with Potter, which had pissed Severus off—even though he was the one that had pushed her away. So he had retaliated with more and more vindictive "pranks" which escalated things further. But Potter…he hadn't really retaliated. He'd frown and let his friends do what they wished, but he didn't do anything. He was a bystander and he was taking Lily.

Then it happened. Severus had pushed Lily away irreparably after being humiliated in front of his peers and enemies. Potter had watched on apathetically as Severus called Lily a mudblood for defending him; he even mentioned how much like a squib she had become. He had done the worse thing possible: say she was weak in front of everyone. But Lily was only weak because…because she had saved his life.

That was the start of the end, Severus now realized.

The illusion was right behind him, and Severus wanted to sink into it to get away from the shame he felt. He wanted to get away because it was _his_ fault they had drifted apart, it was his fears and insecurities that led her to Potter and then to her eventual death (not just for telling the Dark Lord the prophecy). As much as Severus might wish to blame Potter for everything, that boy had done nothing after fourth year. He did nothing, but that was as bad as his previous participation. Severus had fixated on Potter because he took Lily, but he hadn't _really _taken Lily; Severus had pushed her away.

The illusion folded over him and he felt its warm embrace for a moment before he opened his eyes.

Mr. Snape sat up and wiped at his eyes. Why was he crying? Mrs. Snape rolled over in the bed and gave him a sleepy smile.

"Severus, come back to bed," Mrs. Snape remarked with a yawn. Mr. Snape smiled and leaned over to kiss his wife. She smiled up at him and her beautiful green eyes sparked desire in him.

Mr. and Mrs. Snape, of Spinner's End, were proud to say they were perfectly content, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything unpleasant or tragic because they just didn't experience such hardships.

Mr. Snape was the Defense against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for a tenth year in a row. Mrs. Snape was a leading charm specialist within the Ministry of Magic. The Snapes had two daughters, Heather and Laurel, whom the couple could not be more proud of. To them, there were no children quite as perfect as their daughters.

The Snapes had everything they wanted, and it seemed nothing could or would break their peace.

* * *

**TBC**

* * *

**A/N: **So, first asexual character introduced. I realize it is a very different take on Jilly, but what teenager doggedly pursues only one person? So creative liberty and more representation.


	4. Chapter 3: Reality

**Disclaimer: **The _Harry Potter _and _Naruto _series belong to their respective authors. I owe nothing and do not profit from this except in writing experience.

**Summary: **In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.

**A/N: **In this chapter you will see more of the character changes besides Lily and Petunia's parents being from the Elemental lands.

* * *

**Chapter 3: **Reality

* * *

Severus Snape came to and cried out in pain, but his cry was not alone. He was in darkness and something was crushing his leg. He felt something else brushing against his head. It was rough like stone.

His body was wracked with pain, but the only thought he had was: _Where is Lily and our daughters?_ Where was his family?! Then the sickening realization fell on him: it had all been some kind of dream-illusion. An illusion so real and seductive he hadn't wanted to fight it. But he had, hadn't he? Multiple times, only for it to consume him once more.

Severus wanted the illusion to take over again as the pain radiated through his body and made it difficult to think or breathe. But worse, the illusion made him feel Lily's loss anew. He gasped out as he tried to breathe around the pain and grief.

He couldn't wallow right now, not when there were wails from others around him. Not when it was too dark to figure out what was causing him so much physical pain. Severus began to cough as something fell onto his face—dirt? No it was debris, building debris.

Severus tried to feel for his wand—it was in its holster. _Lumos, _he thought as he clutched the piece of wood. The light blinded him for a moment before he was able to make out his location. Severus appeared to be in a muggle building given the use of concreate and metal instead of stone and mortar. No he wasn't just in a building, he was trapped under a collapsed building.

Part of the building had fallen on his leg. He could see his femur had snapped too and the bone was poking out. Oh Merlin, he was going to be sick.

There was a fallen concrete beam by his head and a piece of metal—rebar he believed it was called—was right above his face. Merlin, if that shifted…

He could see no one else bringing their wands out. Was he surrounded by muggles? He shouldn't be surrounded by muggles; if he had truly traversed dimensions, then he should be surrounded by people like Lily and her horrid sister. He should be surrounded by people with "chakra." Had the ritual gone wrong?

In the light from his wand, Severus could see people were crying. Children were bloody and dusty messes. Some adults were skewered on the rebar. Oh Merlin, they were all going to die down here…

The tip of his wand began to flicker out as the pain won over Severus' consciousness.

When Severus woke up next it was because hands were trying to get him to sit up—likely whoever it was had moved the rebar and concrete from behind him. Severus cried out in pain.

It was dark still but his eyes were adjusted to the darkness now and a blurry shape was in front of him. Whoever it was, was speaking in a different language. By Morgana, was he transported halfway across the world instead?

Severus vomited as he sat up. The pain and the spinning in his head… He blacked out for a moment but came back to. The person was still speaking to him, perhaps trying to be soothing. Severus gripped his wand again. Someone was behind him, supporting him. He felt the lip of a canteen brought to his chapped lips.

He had one mouthful of water before it was taken from him. He tried to reach for it but it was held out of reach. Severus' head was spinning and each breath felt like it took so much effort… Oh Merlin, they were suffocating down here. He knew a spell, what was the spell… It came to him and he weakly made the motions and said the incantation. New air spiraled out of the wand and suddenly Severus could breathe again.

He heard the nearly empty sloshing of the canteen. Ah…they were conserving their resources. Focusing on his magic he pointed to the vague outline of the canteen and replenished it. He would just obliviate them all if they survived this. He heard shocked gasps but then the lip of the canteen was pressed back against this lips. Severus drank greedily for a moment before it was pulled away.

Severus relaxed against the person behind him and felt his consciousness slipping again, but then he was woken once more as the canteen person brought it back to him empty. He replenished it again. He did this six times before he was left alone.

The person holding Severus upright began to lower him again. It was agony. He should lift the concrete crushing his leg, but it appeared to be supporting other parts of the fallen building. He didn't know what it all looked like either. If he moved the wrong thing the whole building could fall on them—more than it already was. The most he could do was keep his wounds from becoming gangrenous and keep them all from suffocating.

Severus eventually slipped into unconsciousness again.

He woke every now and then when the air became too thin or the canteen returned. He didn't know how long had passed, but eventually the smell of piss and rot filled the air. Severus had even wet himself but cleaned the mess up with a flick of his wand. He couldn't move while pinned under the building. He was also starving, many of them were, and the stench of decay was growing stronger each time he woke up. It must have been days. They had been trapped down here for days.

It was becoming harder and harder to stay conscious, so when he fell asleep again, he did not wake until he recognized the warmth of sunlight on his face. Incoherent, he cried out and then again in pain.

There was open, _blue_ sky above him now. Most of the rubble had been cleared off of them. Even the towering stack of building on his leg was gone—now it was just one large chunk of building. There was a child dressed strangely in the blinding light. He was lifting the concrete off of Severus as if it weighed little. The man cried out again and the blinding pain sent him to unconsciousness again.

…

Severus did not know how long he had been unconscious, but a cursory look revealed his right leg had been put into a cast and he was dressed in some kind of gown. Deliriously, Severus looked around him and realized he was in some sort of triage tent. Lanterns flickered from hooks in the tent's roof. It cast earie shadows around the tent. There were perhaps a dozen beds around him, and half were occupied.

A few of the other occupants stood out to him. One was a man with a piece or rebar sticking out of his head, and another was a badly burned woman. The rest of the patients in the tent seemed to have broken bones and other abrasions. Just as Severus was deciding to lie back down fully, the tent flaps opened.

A man in a white coat—like muggle doctors wore—walked backwards into the room as two children carried a person in on the stretcher. The doctor—or so Severus presumed—was missing his right arm, for his coat sleeve was knotted above where his elbow would have been. The man had unkempt black hair, and seemed to be giving the children directions in some foreign language.

The children transferred the person from the stretcher onto one of the empty cots and quickly ran out of the room. The doctor pulled out a-a _wand _and began to run through a series of diagnostic spells. What?

Severus blinked several times and tried to focus on the man's face, but all he could see was the man's right side, which was burned up to his jaw after which point a paper masked cover his mouth. He wore glasses though, and Severus had to wonder if he was Potter. Severus looked away when the doctor-who-may-be-James-Potter began a spell that would begin removing layers of burned skin from the patient so that new skin could grow. The patient was either unconscious or on a numbing agent, just as Severus supposed he was too since the potions master could not feel his leg yet.

Just as the doctor-who-may-be-Potter finished the incantation, another pair of children rushed in with another stretcher. The wizard-doctor cast a brief stasis charm to ward off diseases from the current patient's newly exposed skin. He then turned to the new patient and began running scans as the person cried out in pain. Severus could see part of this patient's arm was gone and the open wound looked gangrenous.

Doctor-maybe-Potter ordered one child to get something and the other to stay. While the one child was gone, the wizard-doctor cast a numbing spell on the man's arm, and when the child returned, he was carrying a bone-saw. Doctor-maybe-Potter cast a sanitizing charm before gesturing for the other child to hold down the man. The child with the bone-saw then began to saw through the man's arm. Doctor-maybe-Potter left only to return shortly with something to cauterize the wound. He cast several anti-bacterial charms once the limb was severed and the joint burned. A few more charms, and the wound stabilized while the children were left to dispose of the severed limb.

Doctor-maybe-Potter was shaking slightly as he began to sterilize the bone saw through a number of spells. His last patient was still crying out in confusion and alarm, but Doctor-maybe-Potter began to say something in what must have been a soothing fashion. Not long after, he put the man to sleep with a spell. Of course, pairs of children brought in more bodies on stretchers.

Severus eventually looked away because each new patient was mangled or burned to such a degree that magic could not ease their pain and Doctor-maybe-Potter had to result to almost barbaric muggle practices. Severus half hoped these were all fevered dreams and he might wake up in that illusion again or even Saint Mungo's. His hopes began to fall as hours passed and he fell in and out of sleep to the sounds of Doctor-maybe-Potter healing people with magic and muggle means.

By the time morning broke, all the beds in the triage tent were filled. Some patients had been discharged in the night (likely to make room for more severe cases), while others needed further care. Severus watched deliriously as an older woman went from bed to bed and set her glowing green hands on people. When she came to Severus' bedside, she gave him a grim smile as she set her glowing hands on his leg. Severus could feel his bones shifting, as if they were going back into place.

She then helped him sit up and brought a cup of broth to his lips. So far, he had been the only patient who consistently stayed awake. Perhaps it was the pain that kept him awake? It was not excruciating to the point of passing out any more—as when he was trapped under the building. When he had drank the broth, she helped him to lie down again. The old woman with the green glowing hands continued to heal people in the tent. Some of the people she treated were able to leave the tent afterwards, which let there be more beds for new patients.

With new patients came Doctor-maybe-Potter. The man still wore a paper mask over his mouth, but Severus imagined it was a new one. His white jacket had specks of blood splattered across it. With a good view of the man, Severus could now see he had brown eyes like Potter. He also had bags under his eyes, which were magnified by his glasses. Surely this one-armed man was Potter, but how had he not recognized Severus yet?

Potter finished with another burn victim and turned to a woman with a broken leg and arm when a child entered the room. The child was dressed like most of the other children in lose fitting athletic muggle clothes. Something that stood out, however, was the boy's unkempt black hair—just like the one-armed man.

"Squadron leader wanted me to check in," the child stated in English. Severus thought he had misheard, but the boy had definitely spoken in English.

"Oh? And what do you really want to talk about?" the one-armed man asked tiredly. That was James Potter's voice, there was no mistaking it now that he heard the man speaking in English.

"Supplies," the boy responded. "I know we're running low, but I don't want to worry the patients, plus, I can tell some of the retired medics are on their last reserves."

The man-who-could-only-be-Potter, sighed. "You know all resources have been allocated to the front, same with the best medics," Potter replied tiredly. "I've checked with the other doctors and medics, and our supplies are thin. We'll need to restock with the front if they can spare any."

"I'll tell the squadron leader," the boy replied but hesitated before leaving. "Who all are unclaimed?" he asked suddenly. "There aren't too many search and rescue jobs left, so I may as well try to reunite people, right?"

"None of the dead have been claimed yet, if you want to start there," Potter said with a grimace. "Otherwise," he shrugged as he gestured around the tent, "there are some here too. Shattered leg-guy over there hasn't spoken to anyone since he came in, might be shock." Was Potter talking about him?

"Okay, Shattered Leg-guy, got it. What about burned face lady?" the boy asked.

"Meiko-san," Potter corrected. "She's already been claimed by her husband," Potter replied almost distractedly.

"Mmm," the boy hummed.

"Don't let Daichi help you. A lot of these people are mourning and scared still."

The boy scoffed. "Come on Tousan, when would I ever let him handle something so delicate?"

"That's my boy," Potter mumbled pleased, but still slightly distracted. He was trying to reset his current patient's bones and had come to a difficult part in the incantation.

"Okay, well…" the boy trailed off almost awkwardly. "I'm gonna go do that, but should I tell Daichi to do some supply runs to the front?"

"Hmm?" Potter asked—he was solely focused on the woman in front of him. The child sighed heavily.

"Go take a break," the boy said in exasperation.

"Okay," Potter replied again, clearly not listening. The boy had his arms crossed over his chest and he shook his head before turning on his heel.

"I'll be back in two hours!" the boy called over his shoulder as he left the tent. Potter just hummed again as he began to finish the incantation. He then moved to another patient's bed and checked their chart.

It was hard to believe the one-armed man was really Potter, but Severus could not shake the possibility. Clearly no one here spoke English, so it let the two speak covertly about otherwise insensitive or distressing topics. Really, Shattered-leg guy?! Of course Potter would be callous like that, but how did he not recognize Severus?

Severus sighed and stared back up at the ceiling of the tent. He needed to occlude. He felt uneasy, as if nothing was quite right. Perhaps it was from the pain in his leg, an after-effect of that illusion, or even realizing his schoolyard nemesis had unwittingly healed him. Regardless, Severus needed to strengthen his mental defenses. He doubly needed to do so because the one-armed man had to be Potter and that man triggered Severus' more bitter memories.

Perhaps a few hours passed when Severus was roused from his meditations by more English words. He turned toward the noise and saw Potter walking into the triage tent with the dark haired boy and an oddly muscular blonde boy behind him. Perhaps the first boy was Potter's son, was _Harry, _but Severus wouldn't know until he got a better look at the boy. As for the blonde boy, surely his parents were insane—he was wearing a bright green track suit which did not compliment his pink complexion!

"Tousan's still in surgery," the blonde child in the skin-tight suit exclaimed loudly as they walked into the tent.

"That is to be expected," Potter remarked tiredly before turning around and setting a hand on the blonde boy's shoulder. "But Gai-san is strong, plus both of Tsunade-sama's apprentices are working on him."

The blonde boy worried his bottom lip for a moment. "Kaasan is still worried," he mumbled—this time actually quiet.

"I know, but I think she's more worried about how Gai-san will respond to any new…limitations."

"Meaning he's going to be paralyzed, right?" the boy groused, and the other boy (Harry?) slung an arm around the blonde's shoulder.

"Maybe, but that won't change anything. Gai-san is still going to be loud, and teach you things. He's still going to be himself," the dark haired boy consoled.

The blonde still did not seem convinced. Potter sighed and crouched down in front of the blonde. "Daichi," he began, "everyone is going to be healing for a while. That means we all need to take care of ourselves for our loved ones who are hurt. Like how you've been making sure your mother eats. Then when the injured are healed, we need to support them through any changes."

"Like how we helped you when you lost your arm!" the-boy-who-was-likely-Harry piped in.

"But you can get a prosthetic one," the blonde, Daichi, groused again. "Tousan can't get a new body if his nerves are damaged."

"No, he can't," Potter agreed. "But," he stressed, "that doesn't mean Gai-san can't live a full life. And for the record, I am fine having only one arm. I don't need a prosthetic."

The two boys exchanged a look. "Uh huh," Harry(?) said unconvinced. "It's not at all a reminder of your recklessness," he added sarcastically.

Potter's blush appeared above the mask a bit. He stood up and scratched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, I need to keep doing rounds, so why don't you two—"

"Neh, Tousan," Harry(?) interrupted. "When was the last time you slept?" he asked almost innocently.

"Excuse me?" Potter asked with a furrowed brow, clearly thrown at the change in topic.

"Well," the dark haired boy began, "you did say we need to take care of ourselves, right? So, when was the last time _you _slept?" the boy repeated slowly.

"Oh? Uh...I took a nap at lunch."

"Liar!" both boys yelled, which startled some of the patients.

"You were healing rebar-face guy during lunch," most-likely-Harry accused. And the callous naming was hereditary it appeared.

"I did take a nap at lunch," Potter retorted.

"What did you have for lunch?" Daichi retorted a little too loudly.

"Some moochi."

"That was _yesterday's _lunch," most-likely-Harry stated in exasperation. "Go sleep," the child ordered.

"I'm not tired, and there's much to do," Potter replied as he was about to start a check up on a previously treated patient.

"I get you're drowning yourself in work so you don't have to worry about them, but you need to sleep," most-likely-Harry shot back with a stubbornness that reminded Severus of Lily for a moment.

"Of course I'm worried, Harry!" Potter snapped. "Your dumbass of a brother blew his bloody arm off!" he exclaimed before beginning to pace. "And Kakashi's in yet _another _coma because the bastard doesn't know how to take care of himself. Then everything with Gai-san and…" Potter stopped pacing and looked between the two boys. He shook his head.

"I need to do my part so we can all…all get back to normal, okay?" he asked the boys, as if hoping they could understand him. They just frowned. "Yes, I am burying myself in work," Potter confessed, "but it is better than being alone to my thoughts."

"Kakashi-oji and Naruto-nii won't die," the-now-named-Harry commented quietly as he stared at the ground.

"No, they probably won't, but they are the only village leaders we have right now. Lady Hokage…" Potter trailed off and shook his head.

"The peace isn't going to fall apart just because Nii-san's out of commission."

"No, Harry, it probably won't, but what if the Raikage still has it out for that dumbass Uchiha."

"Sasuke-nii isn't a—" Harry cut himself off when his father gave him a look. "Fine, maybe he is, _but_ you still need to sleep. What if you drop into a coma too?"

"He has a point Oji-san," Daichi piped in loudly. "It would be kinda ironic too."

Potter chuckled slightly. "Yes it would be ironic given all my lectures," he agreed before sobering. "But I can't sleep yet, boys. There's too much to do and there are still injured coming in every hour—"

"Most people being rescued now are beyond help or already dead," Harry cut in.

"The patients need check-ups—"

"Which the nurses and medics can do while you rest," Daichi argued loudly.

The boys seemed to be having a standoff with the man. He sighed heavily. "I can't sleep," Potter confessed a last.

"We can't spare any sedatives," Harry mumbled which made both Daichi and Potter look at him alarmed. "What?" he asked innocently.

"Knocking your dad out physically is a better option than drugging him," Daichi pointed out loudly.

"_NO _one is knocking me out," Potter stressed but the two boys seemed to be having a conversation with just their eyes—like the Weasley Twins did before they unleashed a prank.

"Daichi has a point, Tousan," Harry said slowly as both boys began to move toward Potter who was shaking his head.

Potter had just cast a harmless jelly-leg jinx on Daichi when his son snuck up behind him and gave him a quick hit to the back of the neck. The jinx ended and the boys moved the unconscious one-armed man to an empty bed.

Harry Potter just knocked his own father out as if it was a reasonable solution to the man's lack of sleep. Severus just stared up at the tent roof in disbelief. Moreover, the boy had moved quickly and had used enough force to incapacitate a full grown man. It was unreal.

Several other patients expressed their own shock and fear at what just happened, but Harry began to say something in another language. Likely he was calming the people down. It was ridiculous. Did the boy solve all his problems by knocking people out? That _would _be how Potter raised his son. Severus shook his head.

"Just perfect," Severus mumbled, though his voice was still rather hoarse.

A blur of movement caught his attention, and Severus was suddenly face to face with both of the boys. How did they move that fast.

"You speak English too?!" Daichi exclaimed loudly.

"How do you know it? Who taught you?" Harry asked this time.

Severus tried to give a scathing response but began to cough—his throat was dry. Severus began to reach for the water cup left on the bedside "table," but the young Potter was already handing it to him. Blinking, Severus took a few sips and cleared his throat.

"I've always known English," he responded after a moment.

The two boys frowned and began to fidget. "So that means…?" Daichi began in confusion.

"He's not from here," Harry finished as he withdrew a knife from a hip-pouch. "Who are you?" Harry asked warily though he shifted his stance to project a confidence he lacked.

"Shall we do introductions then?" he asked the dark haired boy. The boys then exchanged another look and Daichi ran out of the tent while Harry suddenly moved to lean over Severus and press the knife to his throat.

"You're going to tell me who you are, why you're here, how you got here in the first place, and who sent you," the child threatened. Harry was glaring slightly and he managed to sound distanced and calculating, but there was the slightest tremor to the boy's hand.

"Or what? Will you kill me?" he asked the child, though the question came off as mocking. He was half-testing the boy to see his resolve and if he could kill an unarmed and injured man.

The boy's steely expression wavered, but then he tightened his grip on the knife. "I won't, but others will."

Severus raised an eyebrow and appraised the boy one more time. The surface thoughts in the boy's mind were set in some kind of classroom where a heavily scared man wearing a bandana was lecturing and stabbing a life-like dummy.

"I see…" Severus drawled after a moment. "I was sent here by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore through a complex array which attempted to recreate the spell your father used to arrive here." He gestured to the space around him with one arm—since _clearly_ Severus was in a new world and Potter was also here.

"You still haven't said who you are or why you're here," the boy stressed and even pressed his knife in a bit closer to Severus' jugular.

"Having already told me you won't kill me, that is less threatening than you think," Severus drawled.

Harry paused minutely. "True, but I'm told neck skin is sensitive, and skinning that area is challenging, but _very _painful." The knife pressed in a bit more and began to move up, cutting slightly into the skin, perhaps even beginning to snag under it.

"A bit dark for a child," Severus blustered for a moment.

"Answer the questions."

"My name is Severus Snape, and I will be your Potions Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am also here to give you your acceptance letter," Severus replied simply, as if he was not being threatened by a child who could use a knife well.

Harry just narrowed his eyes for a moment longer. "Show me your left arm," he demanded.

"Excuse me?" Severus asked.

"Show me _your __**left**_ arm," the boy threatened slowly and began to scrap up a bit more skin. Severus refrained from wincing.

"What do you expect to find there?" the man asked instead as he tried to ignore the sting from the cut.

"I think you know or you wouldn't be hesitating," the boy countered and Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Humor me?" Severus' words caught as the boy applied a little bit more pressure to the knife.

"A snake and skull."

"What makes you think that's on my arm? What does it even mean?" he countered.

"Stop playing dumb, you know what it is and why I'd ask," the child snapped.

"Real—" Severus hissed as the boy now had likely scrapped up a centimeter or two of skin from his neck. "If I happen to have this mark like you seem to suspect, what will you do? Kill me?" Severus challenged. He hoped the child wavered and let go.

"I'll kill you," a woman stated in English. Severus' gaze flicked over to the newcomer and saw Petunia Evans. She had the same long horse-like face, and too much neck. The green-spandex clad boy was behind her and he could now see the familial resemblance—that must be _her _child.

"Evans," Severus greeted curtly. She rolled her eyes and moved over to Potter's unconscious form.

"You two need to stop knocking James out," she commented as she set a green hand against Potter's head. The man roused with a start while Petunia motioned for Harry to move away from Severus.

"Wha—" Potter began in confusion while that horrid woman scowled and approached Severus—as if positioning herself to be a shield against him and the children.

"Did you know you wasted good supplies on Spinner's End?" she asked Potter almost acidly.

"What?" Potter asked as he turned in the direction that woman was glaring. Severus returned the glare though covered his bleeding neck as best he could.

Potter blinked several times. "Snape?" he asked incredulously.

"And here I thought you were just protecting your once-upon-a-time boyfriend," Evans drawled.

Harry's eyes widened in amazement while Potter spluttered and Severus stared at the woman in horror. "What?! You actually dated before?" Harry asked almost…excited.

"Botan…" Potter practically growled.

"It was a joke, Harry. Your mother used to think James had a crush on Spinner's End," Evans drawled and Severus grimaced in further disgust.

Harry hummed, "Was it because Tousan has intimacy issues?"

"How many times do I have to say it? I don't have intimacy issues! Just because I'm not as-as—gah!" While Potter expressed his exasperation in increasingly less coherent shouts, Evans just nodded gravely. Harry gave his father a deadpan look before he sat down at the end of a cot.

"So…" Harry asked over his father's complaints, "is he a threat or not? Death Eater guy or not?"

Severus felt his eye twitch at being talked about so…dismissively, especially after the boy's earlier "interrogation."

"I believe he is one," Evans quipped as she folded her arms over her chest.

Potter finished his diatribe and sighed heavily. "Let's hear you out first," Potter addressed Severus. "_Before_ we get kill happy," he added pointedly to Evans. She rolled her eyes while shaking her head.

"Dumbledore sent me," Severus began. Potter just raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Really? You're not a student anymore and you weren't part of the Order of the Phoenix." It was Potter's turn to drawl.

"Would you believe I've changed sides and currently teach at Hogwarts?" Severus countered.

Potter and Evans both grimaced. "Somehow, I don't see you and children mixing well," Potter murmured before shaking his head. "Regardless," Potter stressed, "you seemed to follow your housemates, so why would you 'change sides?'"

"Yes, well when…" Severus trailed off as the old emotions began to well up within him. It felt so much rawer after that illusion about Lily. Severus closed his eyes and began to occlude. "When You-Know-Who killed—I couldn't…" he trailed off again. "Dumbledore put me to work." It was easier to speak of what happened after than talking about her death.

Severus shook his head as he pushed the emotions further back. "I have your son's school letter if you don't believe me. It's in my robes, in a shrunken trunk." He gestured to where his robes were slung over a folded chair

Potter used his wand to levitate the tattered and bloody robes. He ran several scans for dark or cursed objects before he removed the trunk, resized it, and summoned the letter. He did a few scans again before his wand opened the letter.

"The supply list looks a bit incomplete," Potter pointed out after skimming over the letter.

"That happens when the Headmaster writes the letter at the start of summer holiday and the teachers haven't completed their syllabi for the next year," Severus retorted. Merlin, how long had he been gone? Was time the same here?

Potter stared at Severus for a long moment, as if gauging him. Severus remained calm under the scrutiny and managed not to fidget.

"Botan," Potter addressed Evans, "would you be able to watch him?"

"I have to check on Tai and Gai," the woman replied.

Potter nodded and turned to the two boys. "Can you see if anyone could spare a few Chuunin to watch him?" he asked. The boys nodded and dashed away faster than Severus thought possible.

"If you have things covered…" Evans began. Potter nodded and the woman quickly left in a similar fast fashion.

At this point, the two former schoolmates were left relatively on their own. Potter continued to train his wand on Severus but it was clear the man was exhausted.

"I'm not going to do anything, Potter. I certainly won't be going anywhere with my leg in the condition it's in."

"I don't trust you," the man replied but still sat down in the foldable chair despite Severus' robe hanging off the back of it again. The man then did a few flourishes with his wand and re-shrunk Severus' trunk and put it back in its place.

"Well, I don't trust you," Severus shot back. They didn't say anything more after that.

The silence was heavy and stifling. After several minutes, the boys returned with a woman in a brownish-red jumpsuit with a brown vest. She wore a metal band about her neck that depicted blobs like rocks, perhaps? There was also some kind of design on a secondary metal band.

The woman had severe features, short blonde hair, and brown eyes. She greeted Potter with a nod and spoke quickly in that foreign language. Potter did the same. The woman had one arm in a sling, but her other arm was fiddling with several sharp needles like the ones Lily used to wear in her hair back in school.

Once the woman and Potter finished conversing, Potter began to move away while the woman took his spot at the chair. She was glaring at Severus while Potter pulled the boys to the side.

"Boys?" he began quietly in English, "why is she here and not a Konoha ninja?"

"Good will move," Harry replied quietly. "All the kages agreed they would have their ninja help each other regardless of nation."

"Since when?" Potter asked tiredly.

"Since nii-san made a speech yesterday…before he blew his arm up," Harry added the last bit awkwardly.

"Of course he did, and I imagine with everyone spread so thin in recovering the civilians it makes sense—we all have the same goal."

"Yes," Harry confirmed. His sober expression quickly turned mischievous. "Now, do Daichi and I need to knock you out again?"

"No, I'll go rest," Potter conceded. "Do not come into this tent again without me," he warned the boys as they began to leave. Once they were gone, Potter moved over to Severus. "Let me bandage that," he stated tiredly while gesturing to Severus' bloody hand concealing his throat.

"Why would you care?"

"I don't know if you have something and I don't want an open wound to potentially sicken my patients."

He understood where Potter was coming from but it was a bit insulting. Of course, Severus supposed not even Potter was petty enough to chance the health of others because he didn't want to treat his former rival. Reluctantly consenting to the treatment—mostly in the hopes Potter would leave faster—Severus wondered where and why the young Potter learned such violent tendencies. Soon enough, he was left alone with his dour guard, which he imagined was on a formerly opposing army's side?

Sighing heavily, Severus closed his eyes and began to occlude. Of course, his guard got bored after a few hours and began to throw her needles at a wooden post keeping the tent up. Severus glared at her as she retracted the needles. She just raised an eyebrow and held the needles up threateningly.

It was another few hours before he received some food, but it was significantly less than the others in the tent, which meant he was being treated as a prisoner…great.

In boredom, Severus began to test the woman's mental defenses and found it shockingly easy to breach her mind. He didn't understand what was being said in her memories, but she was thinking about people similarly dressed to her. There were also several people in other uniforms with differently designed metal bands. They were all running quickly through a forest. A young man was leading them, and then…they were blind-sided by something. The ground began to swallow them whole. She lost three allies in the ensuing fight, and the grief was weighing heavily on her. Severus pulled back. He supposed this confirmed that there had been a war here, a war that made different armies come together and fight as one.

The war was over from what Severus had gleaned from the earlier conversations, and now all the nations here were recovering. How many nations there were, Severus did not know, but he could list at least four distinct metal engravings from his guard's memory.

The rest of the day, Severus worked on occluding and occasionally succumbed to sleep. His body was still weak from however many days he was trapped under that building and in the illusion.

Severus woke twice in the night: once because the guards changed; and another time when Potter came to check on him.

Severus glared at the man as the new guard helped Potter put a cuff above Severus' elbow so that the device lined up with an artery. "What are you doing?" Severus asked in a clipped tone.

"Taking your blood pressure," Potter replied distractedly. He then said something to the guard who pressed some kind of metal circle to the inside of Severus' elbow while Potter put these ear-tubes connected to the metal circle into his ears—Severus had seen such a device on muggle doctors but couldn't remember its name. With Potter's only hand, he began to squeeze some sort of bellow type thing which made the cuff around Severus' arm begin to constrict. Wait? Was this how muggles figured out blood pressure?

"Why aren't you using your wand?"

"Because I don't trust having it around you," Potter replied as he continued to pump the cuff. The cuff became so tight that Severus felt as if his circulation was getting cut off. Potter was silent for a minute or so before releasing some valve that let the cuff lose air. The guard took the metal circle off from Severus' arm.

"Your blood pressure is high," Potter stated. "Could be from pain, stress, or fighting an infection. Do you know if your blood pressure usually runs high?" Severs blinked at the rapid and clinical manner Potter spoke. The guard undid the cuff while Severus shook his head. Potter sighed and pulled out a muggle thermometer from the white coat he was wearing. Severus glared at him.

"You can be a good sport or I can get the rectal thermometer out," Potter deadpanned. Severus blanched for a moment and opened his mouth. It was awkward as the former rival took his temperature. When he pulled away, the one-armed man sighed.

"Fever," he said as he put away the thermometer and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Which means you probably are fighting an infection."

"I can make a potion to counter it if you will get my wand and the potions kit from my trunk," Severus replied tiredly. He did feel worn and his joints ached slightly.

"Already picked them from you robe—"

"What?!" Severus interrupted.

"—and they are in a safe place," Potter continued on as if not hearing him. Severus glared coldly at him and Potter shrugged. "What?" he asked almost innocently. "I am not going to risk giving you that so you can do whatever." He waved his only hand dismissively.

"So," Severus hissed. "Am I just going to succumb to this infection and die? That's cruel—"

"If I wanted to kill you, there are far easier ways," Potter interrupted.

"Yes, more _humane _ways," Severus shot back.

Potter rolled his eyes. "So dramatic," he exclaimed. "Think of yourself as being on probation. Unlike Lily, I never believed you were a Death Eater, so I am a bit more…" Potter trailed off as he noticed Severus' paling complexion. The other man furrowed his brow. "What?" he asked almost concerned.

"Lily thought I was…" Severus swallowed thickly as shame began to overwhelm him.

Potter shrugged. "Well, you know Lily. She was pragmatic to a fault when it comes to war." Potter sighed and shook his head. "She was right about Peter too, right about so much," he mumbled.

"Why did she think I…" Severus trailed off, unable to finish the question.

Potter leaned against the wooden pole the previous guard had been throwing needles at. He folded his arms—well, more like one arm was folded over his chest and clutching his nub-arm.

"I dunno," Potter said after a moment with another shrug. "I always said you were too good of a friend to her do that, but she said you would do what you could to survive—even align with people who wanted to kill Lily."

Severus' stomach sank and he felt sick. He was sick at himself, and at realizing Lily had known how he betrayed her.

"You did join, didn't you?" Potter asked slowly as if just realizing what Severus' response could mean. Severus looked away.

"Was Lily right?" Potter continued after a moment in a quiet voice. "Did you only join because you had no safe haven at school? Did you join just so you could have your House's protection?" There was a brief pause. "Or did you really believe that bullshit propaganda?" he asked angrily.

"No matter what I say, it won't excuse me and you'd have no reason to trust me," Severus replied through a tight throat. Lily had always been shrewd in her observations of people, but it still felt like a knife twisting in his stomach that she knew what a coward he was and to what lengths he would go to protect himself.

It was quiet and tense for a long moment, and Severus didn't care to consider why.

"I'll see if I can scrounge up some penicillin," Potter remarked after a tense moment. "Are you allergic to it?" Severus didn't bother responding. He was too ashamed and he needed to occlude before he lost control of his emotions.

Potter sighed and eventually left, and Severus was left to a memory.

_Severus found the worn table at the back of the library but not in the restricted section. The table had deep gouges in it from previous students carving their names into it or making lewd pictures. This table was fairly secluded from the rest of the library and had been Severus and Lily's go to study area until…well until Lily almost died. Severus had been avoiding this place for almost a year, but he couldn't anymore; he needed to study for his OWLS._

_Severus made sure to arrive at the study spot during a time Lily would be somewhere else. Since first year, the girl had always done a run during the day, and Severus thought he saw her go outside to run not that long ago. He'd probably have an hour of quiet studying before he'd have to go back to the Slytherin Common Room. Severus wouldn't be able to do much, but it was better to be in a public space than locked in his room where anyone could sneak in. His housemates still thought he was a muggle-born sympathizer and it was not…comfortable. _

_Severus had gotten through making review notes for DADA and potions when someone slammed their hands down on the table. Severus jumped in surprise before his eyes widened at the sight of his enraged and estranged friend. She was glaring down at the newspaper she had slammed onto the table. _

_"Can you believe this!?" Lily managed to ask without yelling. "This is like World War II all over again," the girl exclaimed. _

_Severus just watched her warily before he glanced at the paper. There had been another Death Eater attack but no suspects were found and those that were interrogated had already been cleared. Of course, the paper didn't say it was a Death Eater attack—that was implied. _

_"I mean," Lily began with a huff, "they're already infiltrating the ministry, and once the government becomes complicit then they can start changing the laws and then they have free reign to kill us._

_"Oh! And the propaganda and fear they're spreading!" Lily exclaimed in her angry whisper. She pulled some crudely made pamphlet out of her robes and slapped it down on the table. It said something to the effect that muggle-borns were stealing pureblood magic and introducing diseases to the magical community. _

_"This is what the bloody SA did in Germany. They divided the nation based on unfounded fears and then preyed on the fact that things were changing. The world was changing, there was a recession, and other hardships caused by the first war. Once they're upset with how their 'life' changed, they try to find someone to blame. That's where we get scapegoats, like muggles and the Jews. Once people are afraid enough and angry enough, they stop seeing us as people, and then that makes it easier for them to rob, torture, starve, and kill us." Lily was on a roll now and Severus was starting to feel alarmed. _

_"Of course, the propaganda isn't all of it, you know," she told him in frustration. "It's the silence: the refusal to speak up and the fear of being punished if you did speak up. That's where this really starts getting bad and looking like Germany. Already Voldemort has half the pureblood population cowering in his presence and you can tell he's putting pressure on the ministry."_

_"Lily," Severus finally interjected. She was huffing and her arms were trembling slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about, but you shouldn't be saying you-know-who's name." _

_She gave a derisive, bitter laugh and slumped down into a chair at last. "Of course you don't because wizards don't pay attention to the world around them. They just concern themselves with their little corner of the world and let history repeat itself again and again and again." _

_Lily closed her eyes heavily. "The first things my parents did when they came here was learn the history. Who were former enemies, what were the conflicts over…" Lily trailed off as she opened her eyes to stare at a nearby bookcase. _

_"Didn't stop the Bay of Pigs issue," Severus mumbled, and Lily sighed heavily. _

_"Don't remind me, but it was more that their contractor gave them bad intelligence." There was a momentary pause during which Lily gave Severus a hesitant smile. "Does this mean we're back on speaking terms?" she asked slowly. _

_Severus looked away. Lily was practically a squib; she still couldn't perform the most basic spells and incantations even after a year. "Why did you insist on going into the forest?" he asked quietly. _

_Lily looked down at the table. "I thought we could handle it," she whispered. _

_"There was a nest of acromantula!" Severus hissed. "We almost died—_you _lost your magic!"_

_Lily looked away. "It was reckless, I know, but we survived."_

_"But you were in a coma for a month with no magic." _

_"My reserves came back," Lily mumbled._

_"What even were those chains?" he asked a bit fearfully. _

_"It's something my dad can do too. Tuney can heal with her chakra and I make chains."_

_"Magic, Lily, and you nearly died because of it and your choices." Severus glared and looked away from Lily. "Just leave before someone sees you," he mumbled. He did miss talking with Lily but if he spent too much time with the "mud-blood" with barely any magic, he'd end up ostracized more by his house. If someone saw them __**talking**__, then it would just get worse within his house. _

_Lily scoffed and shook her head. "Right, you're ashamed of me too." Severus just looked down at his lap and refused to make eye-contact. _

_Lily stood up. "I wanted to try talking to you like we used to, but I guess that's not meant to be, huh?" she asked almost sardonically. "Well, hopefully you realize we're repeating history soon and you make the right calls. Because when people are too afraid of the regime, they become complicit with it. Then they will do whatever they can to survive, even support a regime they know is wrong…even betray friends."_

_"You're overreacting," Severus finally murmured. Part of him wanted to still be her friend, to have these conversations, but Potter's friends had become more vicious in their pranks and Severus had no one to protect him. He needed the support of his House or he wouldn't survive the next few years—not with the vendetta Black seemingly had against Severus. _

_"Am I?" she asked quietly. "Because I don't think I am. This has happened before with Grindelwald and it will keep happening until we can…until we can find some way to live together and stop these cycles of hate._

_"I'm seeing the pattern here, Severus, and the way we try to ignore the problem right now is only allowing it to grow." Lily then stood up and grabbed the papers she had thrown down. "That goes for us too."_

_"Don't you have Potter you can talk to," he almost snapped at her. It still stung to see her associating with Potter, but it wasn't as if Severus was in a position to align himself with a near magic-less "mud-blood."_

_"I'm talking to you, Severus, because I don't want your silence to turn into compliance, and for that to ruin you like it has so many others." _

Severus shuddered. Lily had always known what lengths he would go to, to achieve acceptance and protection. She understood what war and fear did to people, and she could always figure out what a person would do if desperate enough. It had unnerved Severus, but he wished he had listened. He wished he had listened to many things she had said; even wished he hadn't pushed her away after their near-death experience fourth year.

Potter returned not long after Severus' reverie and held some sort of handle-less mug that was steaming. It was some kind of tea.

"Drink this," he ordered, and Severus wearily sat up in the cot.

Severus gave the drink a suspecting look and Potter rolled his eyes. "I've been told not to waste manufactured penicillin on you," Potter explained. "So we're doing this the old way. It's a tea made from the natural substance."

Severus looked at the brown liquid skeptically before he reluctantly began gagging down the drink. Lily had been right about Severus; he would do what he needed to, to survive—even drink a questionable substance from his former schoolyard bully.

After he finished drinking the tea, Potter took the cup. "You'll need to drink this tea several times a day. In the morning, a medic will come in a check your leg for compartment syndrome."

"What?"

Potter sighed heavily. "Compartment syndrome, it's a buildup of pressure in your leg, which if not caught will require us to amputate it. Since only a small bit of bone had poked through the skin, the built up pressure wouldn't be able to escape, so…" Potter trailed off and rolled his hand.

"Since when you did become so proficient in medicine?" Severus shot out perhaps a bit too harshly.

"I've been learning it for the past nine years," Potter replied bluntly. "Just get some sleep Snape," he ordered tiredly. He then left and Severus laid back down in his cot. His right leg was beginning to ache as whatever numbing spell Potter had used began to fully wear off. Before long, Severus was asleep once more.

* * *

**TBC**

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**A/N: **Here is the end of the third chapter. It is still fairly serious but more humor will begin to enter in.


	5. Chapter 4: Interrogations

**Disclaimer: **The _Harry Potter _and _Naruto _series belong to their respective authors. I owe nothing and do not profit from this except in writing experience.

**Summary: **In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.

**A/N: **Here is the fourth chapter…. It is not as fluid as I would like, partially because Severus is the narrator and he knows virtually nothing about the Elemental Lands. Also, James and co. hold all the cards in this game and they are not willing to show their hands unless it gives them an advantage. As such, topics are brought up but not concluded, and it makes this chapter a bit choppy (or abrupt might be the better word?). Anyways, hope you all enjoy ~ with love, depressedchildren

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**Chapter 4: **Interrogations

* * *

Over the next two days, Severus saw Potter twice but the man did not engage with him. Instead, Potter was healing the others in the triage tent, while the old lady from the day before treated Severus. Severus had one guard at a time but their watches varied. In a day, Severus could have three guards watching him or eight. The glimpses of sky from outside the tent kept him from becoming too disoriented by the inconsistent time tables.

However, being surrounded by a foreign language was steadily driving him…desperate for communication with someone who could understand him. Alas, it seemed that this tent was quickly becoming his prison as his leg was left to naturally heal after the initial boosts Potter and that old lady gave him. The other patients were healed quickly and left if there was family to look after them. By the end of the second day, there were only two other patients in the tent with Severus.

Severus reached for a water cup beside his bed, but his current guard twitched for a weapon. Severus sighed heavily and held his hands up before miming how he wished to get some water. The guard just narrowed his eyes and pulled out a knife while nodding for him to get his water. It was this hostility and silence which was quickly making Severus desperate for even _Potter_'s company.

With each new guard, Severus tried to glean more insight into this world he had landed in. Some were more difficult to read than others, but that only meant he had to be more delicate. His initial thoughts were confirmed: there were multiple nations which had formerly been enemies but had allied against a great threat. Apparently Severus had not been delusional when he had sensed great entities made of "chakra." While Severus did not understand the term used for these giant magical constructs, he knew they were terrible creatures and had threatened this whole world.

While most of his guards had not seen the destructive constructs up close, their towering bodies could be seen leagues away. Instead, Severus saw smaller battles with completely black eyed people whose faces looked like cracked masks. The sorrow he felt from the guards indicated these people used to be friends or allies perhaps. Or perhaps it was more complicated than Severus could guess? In addition to those people were white creatures in a veritable sea. Despite being another person's memories, Severus would still pull away with a feeling of dread at the insurmountable odds.

From the guards' minds, Severus also learned they were in a former metropolis that had been hit heavily by the chakra constructs. A few buildings still stood, but with whole sides collapsed inwards, while most of the other buildings collapsed to the side. There were multiple excavation sites where mostly children cleared the rubble and retrieved bodies from beneath—there were not many survivors left beneath the rubble at this point.

As for the politics of this place? There appeared to be five dominate armies or perhaps they were nations? His first guard had been from a place of rock and earth, his second guard had been from a place surrounded by water, and the third had been from the rock place again. Then he had a number of guards from a desert and one darker skinned guard from the mountains, but most of his guards lately had been from a place in the middle of a forest. The mountain guard seemed to not trust any of the other nations/armies, but he was trying to make an effort for what seemed to be his leader—an imposing dark complexioned man with blonde-white hair and an odd conical hat. As for the earth people, they were displeased to guard him, for some reason they associated him with the forest people. The forest people didn't trust Severus much at all, but they did not complain about the guard duty. The desert and water people were more tolerable but they held this cold indifference about them which unsettled Severus.

It was clear the earth people had some former tension with the forest people, and if Severus was being associated as a forest person, then the neutral reactions he got from water and desert people likely meant they were allies with the forest nation/army.

Severus almost chuckled to himself. He was doing what Lily always did: he was learning all he could about the politics and history of the place he found himself in. Part of this was for survival, but Severus was also becoming restless and bored. He was confined without any way to communicate.

On Severus' third (or perhaps it was his fourth?) day in the tent, Potter arrived with a new guard. The one-armed man grabbed a chair from beside one of the empty cots and dragged it over. He sat down heavily as the pervious guard was relieved by one from the water place. Potter closed his eyes and rolled his head from one side to the other before slouching in his seat.

Severus watched Potter warily out of the corner of his eyes and waited for the man to speak. The minutes passed and it seemed like Potter had fallen asleep. Damn it. Severus needed to talk with someone before he went mad. A few minutes ticked by before Severus caved and spoke first.

"Why are you here?" he partially growled because, damn it, he gave in first and spoke.

Potter seemed to jerk awake and then stifled a yawn. "Hmm?"

"Why. Are. You. Here?" Severus repeated slowly in annoyance.

"Oh," Potter blinked a few times. "The kids made me take a break." He shrugged and looked to the side for a moment. Severus just gave Potter his best glare until the man would actually answer the question. Potter blinked a few more times. "What? There aren't too many people left to heal and I have been running on empty. I figured this place will be quite since it's just you, Jiro-san, and Mei-san." He was gesturing to the other patients in the room, one of which Severus recalled the youngest Potter calling rebar-man (or was it rebar-face?).

"Not what I was asking," Severus replied slowly. When Potter continued to look clueless, Severus glared again. "Why are you in a different dimension?" he finally snapped out.

"Oh!" The clarity which lit up the bastard's face made Severus want to hex him. Potter began to frown slightly. "It's hard to explain," he began slowly as he looked away again.

"Please, indulge me," Severus practically sneered.

"You were at Sirius' trial, right?" Potter asked almost distractedly. Severus nodded. Many presumed Death Eaters had been tried back-to-back. "I gave them a memory of Lily and me planning who would be our secret keeper after Harry was born."

Severus sank into the cot slightly as he recalled that time. It had been…difficult to remember the days, weeks, months after Lily died, but hearing her voice had made Severus pay attention.

_Severus felt numb and cold inside as he awaited his trial. Black was on the stand and Potter was providing a memory as evidence. The bastard looked as awful as Severus felt, which was good—Potter deserved to suffer for abandoning her. _

_Severus was prepared to ignore the proceedings when he saw Lily again. With wide eyes, he watched her in the memory. _

**_ Lily sat in a stuffed chair with her leg thrown over the side. She looked bored and annoyed, while Black paced around the room and Potter bounced his infant son against his hip. _**

**_"I'm honored you think I should be the secret keeper but I'm too obvious of a choice."_**

**_"That's what I keep saying," Lily piped in brusquely. _**

**_"And as I've told you, Dumbledore will never let your sister be the secret keeper," Potter chimed in tiredly. _**

**_Lily scoffed. "Out of anyone, she's the one who would have the best chances of defending herself and resisting torture."_**

**_"Petunia?" Black interjected incredulously. Potter and Lily stared at him pointedly._**

**_"Yes," Lily commented in a clipped manner a moment later. "Plus she lives in the muggle world so what Death Eater would deign to spend time with lowly muggles just to find her?"_**

**_"_****Which****_ is part of the reason why we think you'd be a good secret keeper, Padfoot," Potter jumped in. "You already spend half your time in Muggle London; if you go underground there, no Death Eaters are going to try to find you."_**

**_"But I'm the obvious choice!" Black repeated. _**

**_"Told you he wouldn't agree. Can we just get Tunney to be our secret keeper?" Lily almost whined._**

**_"Lily…" Potter began tiredly. "You know she has no mental defenses." Potter hurried on before Lily could take offense, "I mean _****I ****_could probably use legilimency on her and I'm lousy at it."_**

**_Lily pursed her lips in displeasure for a long moment before sighing. "Fine…" she mumbled almost petulantly. _**

**_Black looked between the two with his brow furrowed before he suddenly began smiling. "I know what we can do!" he announced. The couple turned to him with almost deadpan expressions. _**

**_Undeterred, Black continued speaking. "You guys pretend I'm the secret keeper and I go underground in the muggle world. That way, they waste time trying to find _****me ****_when the real secret keeper goes unnoticed."_**

**_"There's no guarantee Remus will be safe after—" Lily began_**

**_"Not Moony, _****Wormtail****_," Black interrupted. _**

**_Lily looked over at Potter. "That's Peter isn't it?" she asked tiredly. Potter nodded and Lily shook her head. "He's your group's weakest link, Sirius. He's brash but not very brave or loyal—he'll turn with the slightest bit of pressure."_**

**_"What?! No he won't!" Black defended his friend. Potter remained silent. Black turned to look at Potter incredulously. "Come on Prongs, this is _****Worm****_tail. He's the most unassuming—"_**

**_"Exactly," Potter interrupted. "He's unassuming which could mean he's playing us." Black stared at Potter in disbelief. _**

**_Lily was practically preening. "Aww, James, you _****were ****_listening to me!" she practically cooed. The affronted expression on Black's face was now directed at Lily. _**

**_Lily sobered and stood up from her chair. "Look Black, you four are good friends, but you all had to notice Peter just tagged along, right? You guys were his protection from bullies, you gave him power when he otherwise had none. He relished doing pranks with you guys because it gave him _****power****_, do you get what I'm saying?"_**

**_"That's not Peter," Black tried to defend. Potter looked uncomfortable as he began to rock infant Harry. _**

**_Lily sighed heavily. "My family knew me going to Hogwarts would surround me with muggle-haters," Lily explained. "So I had to learn how to read people, Sirius. I had to figure out who to trust and who not to because it would someday mean life-or-death. Maybe I'm being too cynical but I don't trust Peter." _**

**_"Prongs…" Black tried to prompt Potter. Potter looked away. Black turned back to Lily in disgust. "How can you not trust someone from our own house?"_**

**_"Because anyone can betray their friends given enough pressure," Lily responded solemnly. _**

**_Potter flinched. "Lily, that's your mom talking," he began to say. _**

**_"Maybe, but she's the one who survived a war." _**

**_"Not this one," Potter murmured and Lily flinched. "These are wizards, they don't think 'logically'" he added. Lily always said wizards and the magical community were ridiculous and illogical. "Perhaps trusting a potentially weak link may help us in the end?"_**

**_Lily folded her arms over her chest and stared Potter down for a moment before sighing. "Fine, but Tunney better be allowed over to help put up defenses." _**

**_"You two are not turning this house into a—"_**

_The memory ended there and was soon followed by one of Peter going through the process of becoming a secret keeper. _

Severus pulled out of his reverie and noticed Potter was looking to the side. "Lily never trusted Peter as the secret keeper. Merlin, she and Petunia trapped the house before he ever became secret keeper."

"Excuse me?"

Potter sighed heavily. "Pretty much as soon as Sirius left, Lily invited Petunia over and they began making our home into a death trap." At Severus' raised eyebrow Potter elaborated tiredly. "Illusions, pitfalls, hidden tunnels to leave covertly, exploding pressure plates. It was a nightmare when Harry began crawling."

"What?" Severus could not believe what he was hearing.

"Most of them they added behind my back," Potter stated as if to clarify something. "Oh, and the really deadly ones were outside of the house." Potter was too calm and it was beginning to alarm Severus.

Severus took a moment to recompose himself. "How," he began slowly, "does that explain why you're in another dimension?"

"Because we began making a contingency plan for if we couldn't trust Peter." Potter rubbed his face with his hand before sighing again. Severus got the feeling that if he stayed quiet Potter would explain himself.

"We…sort of set up an illegal floo connection to Sirius' flat so that our friends and her sister could visit." Somehow Potter said that all in one sheepish breath. At Severus' once more incredulous expression, the man hurried on "You know, that way we could also get mail without risking someone following Sirius or Peter to our house."

"That is unbelievably stupid."

"No, trusting Peter was stupid," Potter retorted almost petulantly. "_Our_ floo connection never got found out."

Severus closed his eyes in disbelief as he shook his head. "Just…" he began, "Just explain how in Morgana's name you got here. The muggles thought it was some demon worship and we've all thought you came up with a new kind of magic—but now we know Evans was involved."

Potter hummed, neither in consent nor disagreement. "You got here too, how'd you get here?" Potter turned the question back on him.

"Experimental magic and being used as a dowsing rod," Severus replied almost exasperatedly.

"And who sent you?" Potter asked almost innocently. Severus opened his eyes and glanced sideways at Potter.

"An interrogation now?" Severus asked with a laugh in his voice. "That was almost expertly done."

"Living with spies you tend to pick things up," Potter replied with a smirk of his own before his expression sobered. "But for real, no lies, you tell me how and why you're here."

"I thought you had already deduced I am a Death Eater. The next logical step is to assume I am here to exact some kind of revenge for my fallen master," Severus replied half-sarcastically and half-tiredly.

Potter gave a partial nod as if to concede. "True, but like I said, I'm not convinced joining them _wasn't_ just an attempt to save your own skin. So, I want to hear you explain yourself."

"Why?" Severus turned to look up at the tent ceiling. "I could lie about whatever I said."

"Yeah you could, but I also learned how to discern lies."

Severus glanced back at the man with a deadpan expression. It was silent for a long moment.

"Very well," Severus consented after a moment. "When I discovered Lily had been…" he trailed off again. "As I've said before I switched sides."

"Not right away," Potter interjected.

"True, I admittedly drank myself into a stupor and was prepared to accept an Azkaban sentence but the headmaster intervened. Somehow he convinced me to change sides and begin—"

"No omissions," Potter cut in again almost coldly. "You know how he convinced you."

Severus looked away and tried to breathe around his rapidly closing throat. "I was applying for a teaching job at Hogwarts—"

"To help recruit future Death Eaters," Potter chimed in. He was not wrong; that was part of Severus' former role. He had never liked children but You-Know-Who needed better recruiters in the school than pureblood students.

"Regardless," Severus continued, slightly perturbed at Potter's insight, "I overheard the divination candidate ahead of me. She said a prophecy," Severus' voice began to crack.

When Severus did not continue, Potter spoke up shakily. "You…you didn't…I thought Peter was the one who—"

"I don't think I heard the whole prophecy but I still told…told him what I had heard. I never…I never thought Lily would…" Severus trailed off and began to occlude as his eyes started to sting. It was his fault, all of it was his bloody fault. He pushed Lily away toward Potter, then he told You-Know-Who about the prophecy.

Potter was trembling in his seat, likely in anger. Severus closed his eyes, prepared to be hexed and almost welcomed it. He felt a tear slide down his face and didn't even care that he was crying in front of an enemy. Severus heard Potter gasp and try to breathe around his anger and grief. It was tense for a moment as they both seemingly cried over Lily's death.

Severus didn't know how much time had elapsed, but Potter spoke up again with a shaky voice. "So…so Dumbledore used your grief and guilt to make you spy for him? Does…does that seem right?"

"No hexes?" he croaked. He chanced a glance at Potter who had his eyes closed while his only hand clutched at his pants leg.

"N-no. I know men like you—you've done more damage to yourself than I could ever do."

Severus looked away and felt himself nod. It was true. He had been punishing himself for nine years. "I…betrayed Lily and I have to live with that, but I could…could make amends by—" Severus cut himself off and pushed his emotions back. "I am spying for Dumbledore, and I keep him abreast of their developments," Severus stated with wavering voice.

"Reporting to Professor Dumbledore would be suspicious, right?" Potter asked with slightly more composure.

"Not if I'm his employee."

"You're really teaching there?" Potter asked in disbelief.

"Potions." Severus felt exhausted. There was another pause.

"Which faction did you come here under?" a man asked.

Severus, in his fatigue, replied to what he presumed was Potter's question. "Dumbledore's faction made a breakthrough but there are Death Eater spies, so I am technically sent through their means but on Dumbledore's orders."

"He's genuine," the same man stated, and Severus turned to look accusingly at Potter, but Potter was looking at the guard. Wait…what?

"I figured he was," Potter replied quietly before sniffing. "You should drop the illusion before you pass out again."

The water guard smiled in an odd way that made his eyes squint. Then the man's visage disappeared in a puff of smoke and a gray-haired man with a mask sat where the guard had been. Instead of being a water person, he was a forest person given the engraving on the metal band pushing his hair back. The man also had a bandage over his left eye.

"I won't pass out," the gray-haired man reassured. Why was he speaking English?

Potter wiped at some remaining moisture on his cheeks and shook his head. "Sure Mr. Chakra-exhaustion." Potter sniffed a few times as he tried to regain his composure. Severus was nonplused.

"Mah, I should check on morale," the gray-haired man began to say as he stood up, only to quickly sit back down as if light headed.

Potter sighed heavily and stood up slowly. "Yeah, no, you're going to be on bed rest for a bit longer," Potter stated. "Leave morale to Naruto-kun; he probably needs the distraction anyways."

"I warned them," the man said tiredly.

Potter snorted. "Since when have either of those boys listened to reason?" The man squinted his visible eye, as if smiling. Potter laughed slightly

"It will probably be a few months before they make a working prosthetic from the Hashirama material," the gray-haired man stated. "Hopefully Naruto-kun will appreciate his limbs a bit more after that." '

"Or he'll find it as an excuse to blow up the prosthetic arm with another reckless jutsu."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about fighting for a while," the strange man speaking English said almost slyly. Potter laughed slightly before shaking his head.

"Stay here, I'll get you some crutches," Potter stated as he left the tent. The stranger then turned to Severus.

"Questions?" He said the single word with this condescending knowingness that irked Severus.

"Perhaps," Severus replied evenly. His earlier emotional display was lost after the absurdity he just witnessed. The man gave a squinty-smile again but said nothing more. Severus practically scoffed, the man was going to make Severus speak up first. It was a clear tactic to give himself more power in the conversation. Severus was the one seeking information and this man could keep whatever he wanted to himself.

By the time Potter returned with two crutches cradled awkwardly under his one useable arm, neither man had spoken. Potter stopped in front of both of them and watched them as they continued their odd staring match. The gray-haired man was still doing that strange sort of smile and Severus was glaring.

"I see you've been productive," Potter commented as he handed over the crutches. The man flashed the "smile" over to Potter and nodded.

"Mah," the masked man said after a moment. "I better check if I'm needed."

"You are," Potter remarked. "At least twelve different jounin need to talk to you while I was retrieving crutches."

The man's visible eye twitched before he sighed and began to make his way out of the tent on the crutches.

Severus was becoming more bewildered by the second. Why was no one explaining the fact that masked man could speak English, or the fact that most of his face was covered—that was bloody weird!

Potter sat back down in a foldable chair with his arm crossed over his chest and holding his nub-arm. Potter seemed content letting the silence remain as if nothing was odd about this.

"How in Merlin's name does he know English? I thought no one knew it here." Severus caved again. Every encounter with Potter created more questions than what he could get answered.

Potter blinked, as if the question was random. "Oh, yeah, I guess we're really the only ones who know English." Potter wasn't going to clarify his statement and it pissed Severus off more.

"Why does _he _know it? Was he your lie detector?"

"He's my friend and he learned English," Potter explained warily, as if he was in trouble for something but didn't know how he was in trouble. He then caught the second part of the question and nodded. "Yeah, he is like a human lie detector, which is a blessing and a curse," Potter remarked almost wistfully.

Severus scoffed. "I knew you were answering my questions too readily. That was a clever plan and interrogation."

"It was Kakashi-san's idea," Potter replied. Kakashisan must be the masked man's name, Severus deduced. It was strange how so many people had "san" at the end of their names. Perhaps it was like old English and Germanic with the –son or –daughter ending to names?

"I'm surprised you'd have such a cunning friend," Severus remarked after a while.

Potter shrugged. "I thought of you as a friend a long time ago and you were—**are** still cunning." Potter shook his head slightly at the tense confusion.

Severus looked away from Potter. "I never understood why you thought we were."

"Lily said it was my naiveté, plus my misconceptions about only friends pranking each other."

Severus scoffed. "Ah yes, how could pranking a friend be a show of respect and trust?"

"I told you: only true friends will tell you when you're being stupid and they can help you be humble. But clearly the feelings have to mutual," Potter added the last point almost dejectedly.

"I was only ever pranking you to bring you down a peg."

"I know now, but I still wish it wasn't so."

Severus didn't comment and looked to the other side. After a moment, he changed the subject. "Since I am no longer a suspect, do you suppose I can make those potions I spoke of the other day?"

"No," Potter responded immediately. "You are still on probation," he added cheerfully. Severus glared at the other man for a moment before sighing and staring up at the tent ceiling.

"I don't suppose I will get to start walking around?"

Potter hummed for a moment. "Depends on if there are spare crutches."

"You just got crutches for your friend."

"Yeah, but you're a civilian and unclassified threat."

This was annoying. Severus glared at the tent ceiling a moment longer. "Well, since your interrogation proved successful, you have no reason to keep bothering me." The bastard could just leave Severus alone if he wasn't going to be useful.

"Can't," Potter practically chirped. Severus felt his eye twitch; the bastard was enjoying the awkwardness. After a pause, Potter added on, "For one, the kids really did put me in a time-out; and two, someone needs to watch you." And three, Potter enjoyed annoying him, Severus added on mentally.

Severus tried to occlude, but Potter began asking him questions about the wizarding world. How was Black, and Lupin? Had anyone caught that damn rat? How was Hogwarts? How was this one quidditch team doing compared to this other one? Who was the minister? The questions were inane, but it was a break from the boredom Severus had been experiencing and it was better than waiting for Potter to answer some of _Severus_' questions. Before Severus was even conscious of it, Potter had shifted the innocuous questions into these subtle questions which tried to suss out the political climate of Hogwarts and the wizarding world.

Severus stopped himself from answering a question about Lucius Malfoy's recent promotion within the ministry of magic. Severus closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. Since when had Potter become so clever?

"Figured it out, huh?" Potter asked. Severus glanced over and saw the man smiling sheepishly.

"You could ask me outright about the affiliations of different families? As I figured you are want to do."

"But if I do that there is more of chance of you picking what you'll respond with instead of potentially revealing something more…um meaningful? Kakashi-san explains it better," Potter explained almost dismissively. "Anyways, if I start asking blunt questions again, he'll lecture me, and then Harry will lecture me, and…" the man trailed off with a sigh. "It's just not worth it."

Severus tried to keep his disbelief back, but he couldn't. Who was Potter now? There was some of that old arrogance but the hardships he had experienced in the last nine years had also changed the man. This was disconcerting; he wanted to see Potter be brash again.

"Why are you being so amicable? Especially after what I…confessed."

That got Potter's pleasant façade to break. The one-armed man stared coldly at the ground. "What I said was partially true. You've probably beat yourself up more than I could, but I did want to hex or punch you," he stated quietly but intently. "I want to curse you but…Kakashi-san reminded me—"

"What?" Severus interjected. "When did he have time to talk to you?"

Potter sighed heavily. "Prophecies are prophecies for a reason." He was ignoring Severus' question and it made the potions master grind his teeth. "No matter how we try to avoid them, we either unwittingly make them come true or willingly play along with them. Sure there's always some bit of _choice _we have in it, but our fates are what they are for a reason. There really is no such thing as coincidence," Potter added the last piece in a quiet and bitter tone.

Severus couldn't help but scoff. This whole situation as infuriating and confusing! "So she, or any of us, had no chance? Is that what you suddenly believe?"

Potter clutched his nub-arm and glared more intently at the ground. "Prophecies do give us some choice. This 'Power the Dark Lord knows not' could be chakra, and we could have all left right away and have been safe from him."

"What?" Severus hadn't heard that part of the prophecy.

Potter shook his head and continued as if he hadn't heard Severus' question—yet again! "But that doesn't really _mark_ Harry as Voldemort's equal; it doesn't give them any reason for their _fates _to be intertwined." Potter paused, his anger boiling beneath the surface. "No, Voldemort made his choices, and we made our choices which led Harry to be the Child-Who-Lived. And you made your choices, but I'm sure even if you hadn't told him the prophecy, Peter would have. When fates are intertwined, there are no coincidences."

"How do you know?" Severus meant to sound as angry as Potter but it came out weak.

"You've likely gleaned there was a war, yeah?" Potter asked quickly. Severus nodded. "The war was based on a prophecy too, and it tied back to the fates of two brothers. Their descendants lived just like the two brothers had, and by working within the prophecy they were able to beat a wanna-be goddess. Prophecies give room for our choices and can have multiple solutions, but there aren't any coincidences—not when your fates are intertwined."

When Potter finished, he was breathing almost heavily as he tried to control his emotions. "It's bullshit and annoying, but there's no escaping it."

Severus looked away from Potter. He felt uneasy and almost hopeless. Was there really no way Lily could have survived? Had he really not had any control in what had happened? Was it all fated and they were just playing their parts?

"Are you two kill each other?" a loud voice asked in almost unintelligible English. The tense atmosphere broke as Potter and Severus turned to look at the newcomer. It was a small dark haired child with round blue eyes, who was also wearing a bright green dress of sorts. She was likely four years old.

"Tai…" Potter reprimanded slightly. The girl flashed him a smile that seemed to sparkle in the light. "Where is your mother?"

"With Otousan," the girl replied innocently.

"And why aren't you with them?" he asked in a manner that said he wasn't willing to play games.

"Because Okaasan and Otousan be gross!" she exclaimed. She made a face and shook her head.

"Kissing is not gross," Potter replied while rubbing his nose before he perked up. "Wait, your father's up and you decided to bother me?"

The girl pouted. "Ojisan!" the girl whined. "I came to get you."

"Tai!" a familiar loud voice rang out. Great the loud blonde boy was back. The boy had his hands on his hips as he glared down at the girl in the tent flap entrance. "You're not supposed to be in here," the blonde reprimanded loudly. The girl puffed out her cheeks and folded her arms over her chest.

"Daichi, go get a guard to relieve me and I'll head over there with you two," Potter requested. The blonde boy nodded after a moment and then was off.

Tai, the little girl, was now quite suddenly in front of Severus' cot. How she got from the entrance to here so quickly was beyond the wizard.

"Whas your name?" the girl asked and Severus had no clue how he knew what she had said. "I'm Tai!"

Potter sighed heavily and stooped down by the girl and held out his arm. She got his message and wrapped her arms around his neck while he picked her up with his one arm. She was then propped against his hip. "This was your ba-san's childhood friend, Severus," Potter explained.

"Ero-kun?" Severus froze when he recognized that title of sorts.

Potter dropped his head forward, "You have to stop listening to your mom and Naruto-kun."

The girl was oblivious and just waved at Severus with a bright, gleaming smile. Before things got stranger, Daichi returned with a forest people guard. The three then left while the guard took up his place.

"Do you speak English?" Severus asked after a minute. The guard looked at him blankly. Of course not.

Severus spent the next hour trying to wrap his mind around all the oddities. Severus understood Daichi was Evans' child, but now it seemed she had spawned more children since coming here and Potter was _not _the father. Furthermore, the muggle woman's family had gotten more insane.

Then there was how everything was so strange; how were children so fast and strong? How did a wannabe goddess become part of a prophecy? The only large threat Severus had felt on his way here was that giant magical construct… Maybe this would turn out to be some strange dream? He'd wake up in St Mungo's after the failed experiment.

Severus pulled out of his thoughts when he heard two people talking next to his bed. When he looked over it was his guard bowing to the masked man. The masked man was saying something and the guard eventually straightened with a nod and left the tent. The masked man then made his way slowly over to the chair on his crutches.

"You're to be my guard now?" Severus drawled.

"Better than being surrounded by the Uzumaki Clan," he stated almost indifferently. He then pulled a green book from his vest and began reading it backwards. Severus would be damned if he broke the silence this time. Eventually, the man's presence was easy to ignore, at least until someone began speaking to the masked man in English.

"Neh, I wondered where you went to," a child stated. Severus glanced over and saw it was Harry. He was walking calmly toward the masked man and almost seemed bored, but there was this anxiety in the way he held his body.

"Mah, your cousins are too loud," the masked man replied. Harry rolled his eyes and almost tentatively sat in the foldable chair his father had been sitting in hours earlier.

The boy kicked his feet slightly and just watched the masked man, like he was afraid the man might disappear. Severus shifted slightly and began to carefully sit up. The boy's eyes glanced back toward Severus before shifting back to the masked man. The masked man just kept reading.

This was quickly becoming awkward. Severus cleared his throat, "Mr. Potter," he addressed the boy as he would any student.

"They go by Uzumaki here," the masked man piped in which made Harry blink and turn in surprise toward Severus.

"Oh, were you trying to talk to me?" Whether Potter got the clueless doe act from Harry or vice versa, Severus was now more aware of the family resemblance—how that passed onto mannerisms is beyond him.

"Yes, and I will be calling you Mr. Potter when you attend Hogwarts," Severus replied in some measure of control. "Has your father explained the circumstances of my arrival here?"

The boy gave a noncommittal shrug. "Is the Potter thing because Otousan comes from a wizard clan and I'll have more prestige using that name?" the boy asked the masked man instead of Severus.

The man nodded his head. "Like how your father took your mother's family name so he would have the protection of a clan, you'll have to take his name for protection." The boy made a face at the masked man's explanation, but quickly schooled expression when the man also gave the boy a look—how that look differed from his normal stare was a mystery to Severus.

The man then glanced over at Severus quickly before looking back at the boy whose eyes widened as if he remembered something. "Neh, Professor Person, can I ask questions about Hogwarts since you teach there and all?"

Severus felt a muscle twitch beneath his left eye. "Professor Snape," he corrected, and the boy nodded. "I suppose I can answer your questions if you will answer some of my own." It was time to start evening the playing ground with these people. They took more than they gave in these interrogations, and undoubtedly this would be another interrogation.

Harry gave a sidelong glance to that Kakashisan-man who nodded marginally. Harry then shrugged, "Sure, if I can answer them."

Severus filed away that nonverbal exchange to be examined later. "What is your first question?" he asked instead.

"Well, Otousan's talked about Hogwarts some but that was a really long ago and when Voldemort was in full power, so…what's it like now?" he asked, once more swinging his feet as he sat.

First, Severus and Potter were barely in their 30s; it was not _that _long ago! Second, the child was being pragmatic like his mother: learn the layout of the land before you jump in.

"No one calls the Dark Lord by his name, they say You-Know-Who," Severus instructed.

"I know, but that's stupid. Fearing a name just makes the human behind it scarier than they really are."

"And you have not been on the end of his crutiatous curse," Severus shot back before realizing he had said too much.

"Fair, but I survived his killing curse, right?" the boy replied cheekily.

"That sass would be an immediate house points' deduction." He was a bit annoyed he couldn't deduct points from the boy already.

"So? They don't count towards grades or graduation. It's just for bragging rights." Severus couldn't tell if the boy was just being belligerent or if he was truly that clueless.

"The way your father talked about it," Kakashisan-man piped in, "it's about creating a sense of comradery with your house members and a healthy rivalry with the other houses. Like Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun's dynamics—"

"Excluding trying to kill each other?" Harry added cheekily.

"Mah, that was just hormones and misunderstandings," the man dismissed.

"I'm sure a boarding school full of kids has lots of hormones and misunderstandings too," Harry pointed out.

"Well, don't be as stubborn or stupid as those boys are and you'll be fine," the man replied before going back to his book.

"You always give such sage advice, Kakashi-jisan," the boy chirped. They both then gave the same sort of squinty eye smile.

"I thought your name was Kakashisan?" Severus commented before realizing he had asked that out loud.

The man turned to Severus with the same "smile" in place. "It's Hokage-dono to you."

The boy's eyes widened and his mouth fell partially open as he looked away from the two men—it was the sort of expression he had seen on students when someone said a surprising insult. Severus furrowed his brow as he tried to parse out what exactly was the insult. Was Kakashisan his first name and Hokagedono his last name? But why did Harry call him Kakashijisan? Or wait… "Ojisan…jisan, are these suffixes? Titles?"

Harry nodded. "San's polite address, like saying Mister," the boy explained almost bashfully. He then fidgeted. "Neh, can we go back to my first question?" he asked.

"What was your question?" Severus asked tiredly as he filed away what he could for later inspection. Clearly, Severus was not allowed to call this Kakashi man by his first name.

"What's Hogwarts like now?" Harry repeated. "Like have there been any renovations? New houses, new classes? Things like that."

"Hogwarts has not been renovated, and the houses are all the same with the same characteristics as they've always held. As a first year, you will take transfiguration, charms, potions, defense against the dark arts, herbology, history, and astronomy. Material has changed since your father and I studied there, but the classes overall have not changed."

The boy nodded his head as if filing away the information. "What's the interaction between the different houses?"

"I believe I have a question to ask," Severus piped in.

"But I answered your question about addressing people, so I get my second question." The boy was acting innocent and he even did that damn squinty eye smile.

"You would have detention at this point." Severus folded his arms over his chest in annoyance.

Harry was about to say something but Hokage-dono guy spoke up. "Harry," he warned. The boy closed his mouth with a huff. The gray-haired man continued speaking. "Also, he did answer your question, so you should answer his next question."

Severus closed his eyes for a moment as he composed himself. The boy had asked more than one question, so this should be fair game, but it was two against one in this game. He'd have to choose his battles. "Very well…"

And so Severus answered the boy's questions while he ended up getting less satisfying answers the longer they talked. The boy somehow managed to say something absurd that would beg for another question, and in the end, Severus ended up telling more than he planned to and learned less than he wanted to.

The boy didn't know how he and his father got here or really _why_; as far as he knew, they had always lived in Konoha, the forest people's village. When Severus asked about the war they had all just fought, the boy said nothing new but did look at the gray-haired man several times as he talked—as if making sure what he was saying was appropriate. The more Severus attempted to get clarification, the vaguer and more useless the boy's responses were. Severus even tried directing questions at the Hokage-dono guy, but he just motioned for Harry to answer.

Even when Severus asked about how the masked man became friends with Potter, Harry replied. "I dunno, Kakashi-jisan's always been around, and then he started teaching Naruto-niisan."

It was both infuriating but also a sight to behold. The child could obfuscate like a master. Even asking for more detail about who this "Naruto" was they kept repeating lead to: "He's my niisan." Severus legitimately tried to give as vague of answers as he got, but the boy would add some flippant comment about stupid wizards and Severus was off defending his kind. Or worse, the boy would make some sly comment that Severus could agree with and get him talking more; like when the boy began discussing the merits of being in Slytherin and the political ties.

They were perhaps two hours in when Potter returned to the tent. "How's the interrogation going?"

"Good!" the boy and gray-haired man stated.

Severus glowered at the tent wall. A ten-year old got him to talk more than any experienced Death Eater interrogator. Sure the information was common knowledge but all knowledge is power; furthermore, this was a power game between them. It was almost a challenge on their spying ability; who could divulge the least and learn the most while remaining amiable and unassuming?

Potter just hummed and nodded his head. "Neh, Kakashi-san, Nara-kun needs to speak to you."

"He just wants reassurance when he knows he's devised a perfect plan," the man replied dismissively as he turned back to his book.

Potter coughed slightly. "Kazekage-sama is also there, and the Mizukage, and the Raikage and—"

"I'll be going," the masked man stated with a sigh as he put his book away and began to stand up with the crutches.

"Harry, help him," Potter ordered before sitting in the now vacated spot. Harry supported the tall gray-haired man out of the tent flap.

"Is everything well with the muggle?" Severus asked after a moment. Part of him was still bitter about the earlier interrogation.

"Hmm?" Potter asked before his eyes widened. "Right you still think the Evans' were muggles."

"Yes and no. How is she? She seemed as unpleasant as ever."

Potter shrugged. "She's okay. She's just surly with you because she holds grudges."

"I never called her any names."

"But it was implied," Potter argued.

"Excuse me?"

"You know how sensitive Lily and Botan were of their parents being called…well anything negative because that then reflects back on them."

"What did you just call Evans?"

"Oh, yeah, that must be weird to you," Potter commented with a sheepish laugh. "Ah, her mom was going to name Botan, well_ Botan_, so she tried to find the English name but ended up reading the wrong entry and so she was named Petunia instead of Peony."

"Have you and your son also adopted new names?"

"No, I mean besides that we took Lily's last name." Potter then frowned as if he remembered something, "Although I guess Harry likes to play with names when he first meets people." He shrugged and smiled slightly.

"Somehow you've managed to become stranger," Severus mumbled partly to himself. He was starting to think the absurdity of the situation mixed with his broken leg were making him not so in control of his faculties.

"Konoha does that to you. It's full of eccentrics." Potter then dropped his head forward. "And Botan had to marry the most eccentric one," he lamented.

A feeling a dread began to spread through Severus at this. Petunia Evans had always been reserved and strong willed, she might yell but she was not as loud as her son and apparent daughter were. Oh dear…did those children inherit their loudness from their father? And the fascination with that bright green! Oh Merlin, he hoped he wouldn't meet anymore of Petunia's family here.

Shaking away those disturbing thoughts, Severus focused back on Potter. "How long do you suppose my probation will last?" he asked.

Potter shrugged. "That's up to Kakashi-san."

"Why would it be up to him? You're the one who would know the most about me."

"I know and I've told Kakashi-san you're capabilities, but he thinks you're more dangerous than I think." Potter shook his head slightly and rolled his eyes.

"What?" Severus felt like he was getting a migraine from the nonsensical answers.

"I think it would be okay for you to start walking around, if only for health reasons, but Kakashi-san doesn't trust you enough to be without guards."

"Why does he have any say in this?"

"Because he's the Hokage," Potter stated slowly. "He tends to tell people that if he doesn't like them."

"Potter, I am new to this world and don't know what the bloody hell you're talking about! All of you need to stop assuming I know everything about this culture," Severus snapped.

Potter stared at Severus with his eyebrows raised. "Lily never told you about her culture? But you two were best friends." That felt like a slap in the face and then being dunked into the Hogwarts' lake during the spring thaw.

"Perhaps there are things she would only tell her husband," Severus replied in a clipped fashion.

"Or perhaps you just never asked," Potter replied. "I knew about kage's before we even started dating. If she trusted you, she didn't keep secrets, especially if you asked."

Even back then Lily didn't trust him. The realization froze his insides.

"Get a damn guard in here and leave me alone," Severus forced out as he looked away from Potter. It was silent for perhaps a minute before Potter stood up and left. Not long after a new guard came in and Severus feigned sleep as he berated himself for being such a fool.

Lily had never trusted him, never loved him, and why would she? He as always pushing her away or pushing his thoughts on her. He even killed her. Stifling a sob, Severus hid his face in the rough pillow.

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**TBC**

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**A/N: **So I realize penseive memories at trials were likely only shown to the judge and members of wizengamot like Dumbledore, but I am using the cinematic version of memory reveals as seen in the _Fantastic Beast_ movie for plot purposes. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter ~ much love, depressedchildren


	6. Chapter 5: Welcome to Elemental Nations

**Disclaimer: **The _Harry Potter _and _Naruto _series belong to their respective authors. I owe nothing and do not profit from this except in writing experience.

**Summary: **In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.

**A/N: **This is an especially long chapter because I could not find a good place to end it. I apologize for the long gap between updates. I hope to update again in December. Much love ~ depressedchildren

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**Chapter 5: **Welcome to the Elemental Nations

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Severus didn't want to get up, but his body was making it difficult to stay asleep after the thirty plus hour mark. He felt sore, his leg ached, and he had an incessant headache. Oh, he was also hungry since he had been essentially sleeping through meals.

When he had first skipped dinner, it was because he had genuinely been asleep. The other meals he skipped because he was attempting to occlude and thus feigned sleep. He was emotionally exhausted after all that had happened since he left the wizarding world—his _home _dimension. His memories of Lily were raw, and the one's he had buried away were now always at the forefront of his mind.

When he would get close to locking those memories away, one thought would unleash them. _Lily never trusted him_. His dearest friend, the woman he loved, never trusted him. Like some masochist he'd throw his mind back through those memories. He'd scour through every moment in search of something that would tell him otherwise; something that would tell him Lily did trust him. Then, like a never-ending cycle, he'd try to push the pain of those memories away by bottling it all back up.

He was just trying to sleep now, sleep through the morning bustle outside the triage tent. Part of him tried to calculate exactly how long he had been "sleeping," but a larger part of him just didn't care. He was even starting to wonder why he had done all this. Lily never trusted him, never loved him, why had he risked his life to retrieve her child? Why was he even still here?

Severus buried his face against the rough pillow as an empty feeling began to swell inside of him.

He heard the tent flap move but no one approached. He just kept his eyes closed and hoped to fall asleep. Maybe he could try to recall that illusion he landed in, surely that fantasy would be better than the waking reality? Just as he was hoping for some form of oblivion, Severus began to hear faint conversation coming from the tent flap.

"We're not switching out an armed guard for a civilian guard, I don't trust him." The deep resonate voice that somehow managed to sound bored was instantly recognizable. That gray-haired man was talking to someone in English, and Severus had no doubt it was about him.

"And I'm a doctor and I say he needs suicide watch," Potter retorted. Severus frowned. What? Perhaps they weren't talking about him, and even if they were, what did Potter care?!

"You're a medical doctor not a Yamanaka," the other man retorted.

"I also am more empathetic than you, and have experience with emotionally closed off assholes who think they can push through depression and PTSD through sheer force of will or motivation." Potter sounded pointed there.

"Doesn't mean he'd kill himself."

"You know the signs as well as I do. He's been 'sleeping' through meals, and treating him like a criminal is not going help!" Potter hissed. He spoke quickly and with frustration. "He's punishing himself enough already, our indifference might as well be pushing in the knife!"

Potter gasped as that last word left him, and he cursed. "Kakashi, I didn't—"

"He's your responsibility." The man's tone had a cold edge to it. "His actions become yours, and all punishment the same." The bored quality was gone from the gray-haired man's voice, and a chill seemed to permeate the air. "Now excuse me, I have meetings to attend."

Potter cursed. "Kakashi—"

"I have meetings to attend," the Hokage person repeated tersely.

Potter began a string of curses as he entered the tent, or presumably entered it. Severus was still trying to make himself fall asleep but was also quite conscious they _had _likely been talking about him. Potter began saying something to the guard in that other language. Severus then heard the guard get up and likely leave.

Potter sat down heavily with a sigh. "Lily…why do I keep messing up?" he quietly asked himself. There was a moment of silence and then a groan. "I need to keep my damn mouth shut."

A silence elapsed, and Severus thought he might be able to drift off, but not a minute passed before there was movement at the tent flap again and then quick footsteps.

"Did you and Kakashi-jisan have a fight again," Harry asked almost nervously.

"Hey little fawn, come here," Potter replied tiredly. Severus just tried to fall asleep, but the more they talked, the more he paid attention, and the more awake he felt. Damn it.

"You two had a fight, didn't you?" Harry asked almost…not accusingly but certainly upset.

"I just said some thoughtless things."

"You've been doing that lot, maybe you should sleep more," the boy said in a manner that might have been teasing but didn't succeed.

"Speaking of, what nightmare did you have?" Potter asked softly.

"That one Pein was tearing you into pieces," the boy whispered shakily. "Then there was a bunch of green light and I…I think mum was screaming."

"Oh, little fawn," Potter seemed to soothe. It was quiet for a long moment and Severus might have fallen back asleep if his mind wasn't running wild at what the boy had just said. He…he remembered Lily dying?

"Did you want to talk to Kakashi-san?" Potter asked softly. The boy made no verbal response and then Potter asked something else. "Do you just want to sit together for a bit?" Another non-verbal response, and then Potter mumbled, "Okay."

Severus was still pondering what he had just learned when his stomach growled audibly. "Professor, you should stop trying to sleep and just get up," Harry commented almost sadly.

"Wait, have you been pretending to sleep?" Potter asked Severus, suddenly energized.

Severus wearily turned his head in the man's direction and opened his eyes. One eye stayed closed until he rubbed the dried tears from it. When Severus could finally see, he noted Potter was in his (now) usual chair and Harry was curled up to his chest. The boy also had noticeably longer hair this morning. Surely his hair didn't grow that fast?

When Potter continued to look at Severus like he was some eavesdropper, the potions master sighed. "I was trying to fall back asleep but you're all so loud," he replied tiredly.

"Probably doesn't help that you're so hungry," Harry replied. Severus narrowed his gaze at the boy's cheekiness, but Harry wasn't looking at him—his head was tucked under his father's chin and he looked small. While the boy's words suggested his usual teasing, his demeanor was somber. It was a little perturbing.

"He's right. You've slept through several meals, but if you feel strong enough to walk, we can go to the rations' station," Potter offered. His hand was rubbing soothing circles into Harry's back.

Severus shifted his narrowed gaze onto Potter. So he was allowed to walk around now? The thought of leaving this cursed tent was tempting. A bath would be nice too. He felt horrid and it was doing nothing to improve his mood. Someone had probably washed him when he first came into the triage tent but that was days ago—perhaps even a week ago. The longer he laid in here, the less inclined he felt to care about his own cleanliness, but there was certainly something tempting about being outside these canvas walls.

Severus debated between the nothingness of sleep and the feel a breeze and sunlight on his skin. It was difficult to choose, but his stomach growled once more. Between his hunger and the pain in his back from laying down for so long, he knew he would not be able to sleep. Reluctantly, Severus nodded his head. Maybe he could convince Potter to cast a scroufigy spell on him too, surely that would improve Severus' mood.

Potter tapped Harry's arm and the boy almost reluctantly let go of Potter to run out of the tent. The boy returned not long after with crutches.

"There are crutches for me now?" Severus drawled.

Potter gave a sheepish smile. "Protocols were in the way before," he explained while he and his son helped Severus stand up. The potions master's sight went out as his blood rushed away from his head, but Potter was there to steady him, much to Severus' chagrin. The three of them then began walking out of the tent—well, Severus limping along on the crutches. It was painful and his head spun, but once he was out of the tent…it was worth it.

The sight before him was devastation, but his guards' memories had prepared him for such. Then again, it was the fresh air and sunlight he had been missing—he could care less about his surroundings. He was finally out of that damn tent—out of that canvas prison.

Potter began to lead the way toward some wooden stands with large steaming clay pots over fires. There were a number of people manning the pot and creating some kind of noodle? There were also a number of people handing out bowls to those lined up along the stand. It was quite a long line.

While they waited in said long line, Severus looked around him. In the distance he could see forests and mountains, but immediately around them was a fallen city. While not all rubble had been cleared away, enough had been cleared or smoothed down to create pathways. Most people traveled by the pathways, but there were figures who seemed to jump from one rubble pile to the next—they moved almost as fast as brooms did.

Severus could pick out the "civilians" from the armies easily enough, and not just because the army personnel were usually the ones jumping from one rubble pile to the next. No, the armies wore sturdy vests and had engraved metal bands, while the civilians wore robes of sorts, or pants and raggedy shirts. Then there were the kids who wore athletic clothing like Harry and moved far too quickly. Severus noticed some civilians were more nicely dressed than others but were now left in destitution after their world fell apart. Then there were the doctors who wore long white coats like Potter, but Severus noted not all of them were civilians based on the vests beneath the coats.

Now that the search and rescue was over, it seemed most of the people (civilian and military) were focusing on creating order from the chaos. In some cases, people were setting up more stable lodgings. In fact, once a triage tent went down, some military personnel would begin creating these earthen walls that formed crude domiciles. It was impressive how each military personnel could manipulate the earth with their mag-chakra.

"Yamato-san would be helpful right now," Potter mused. Harry laughed out loud for one brief second before he cut off his own laughter. He stuck close to his father's side and was now frowning.

"Kakashi-jisan hasn't talked about him. Do you think he survived?" Harry asked quietly. Potter frowned and smoothed back some of Harry's hair.

"I'm sure we'll find out soon," Potter replied quietly before turning to look elsewhere. Consequently he was looking at Snape and gave a grimace like smile. "Welcome to the Elemental Nations," he half-joked.

"Despite all the destruction, everyone is coping surprisingly well," Severus remarked in part to focus on something else.

"Yes, well, considering one nation or another has been at war, overt or covert, for the last hundred some years…" Potter trailed off and shrugged.

"Which is why children are trained as soldiers," Severus murmured and looked around at the children flitting around them and then down at Harry. That should have been obvious but Severus had been ignoring it because…because Lily had hated this life. Her mother and father had trained her to be like a soldier because they had been such while growing up. It was child abuse, but somehow the Evans family kept out of child protective services' scrutiny—well mostly.

"Who is the Sage?" Severus asked as he recalled his first experience with the Evans family and Mr. Evans' almost parable like reference.

Both Potters looked over at him startled. "You know about the Sage? _I _didn't know about the Sage until all this started happening," Potter waved his arm at the destruction around them.

"I recall Mr. and Mrs. Evans mentioning some Sage like it was Merlin?" Severus supplied while trying to hide the slight glee he got from knowing something Potter didn't about this place. "I believe Mr. Evans' exact words were: 'did not the Sage see wisdom in learning from others.'"

"That is surprisingly accurate," Potter murmured as they continued moving in the line. He then shook his head. "Why were they even talking about that?"

Severus frowned and looked away. "Lily was on a run with her family and had fallen behind…" he trailed off and a look of understanding flashed over Potter's face.

"Mrs. Evans was always so hard on Lily," Potter murmured.

"Well? Who is this sage?" Severus asked in a bored tone, hoping to shift focus back to his initial question.

Potter grimaced. "That's a question to ask Naruto-kun since he…spoke…to the Sage." Potter did not sound very reassured or certain about the latter half of his sentence. Harry giggled slightly.

"How do you have a hard time believing _that_ after everything that's happened?" Harry accused with some mirth still in his voice.

"For some reason, Naruto-kun having a conversation with the Sage is less believable than the Sage's mother being a crazy rabbit goddess."

"Tousan!" the boy chastised. He was becoming more expressive—more like the boy Severus had seen the days prior.

"Your brother has no tact and I do not see how he could have a respectful conversation with the Sage."

"For having no tact, Nii-san's really good at bringing people together," Harry commented slyly. Potter rolled his eyes and ruffled Harry's hair. The boy allowed the action and then leaned against his father's side as they waited for the line to move along.

So they half answered his question, like always, but weren't going to clarify anything. Severus felt his eye twitch slightly in annoyance.

"How's your leg feeling?" Potter asked Severus after a moment.

"What do you expect it to feel like?" Severus drawled.

"Like fire and needles going all through your leg and then a ton of pressure that makes you wanna be sick," Harry piped in.

"Yes, like that," Potter replied. Severus looked away and nodded slightly. Potter patted Severus on the shoulder, which made him jerk away and almost fall.

"Sorry about that," Potter stated with a sheepish smile. "Uh, well, I'll see if I can get some pain reliever when I bring by your penicillin tea."

"They're not gonna let you," Harry piped in with an almost sing-song tone.

"It's still worth a try."

Severus narrowed his gaze slightly. What was Potter's game. The first few days Potter didn't trust Snape or believe he was being genuine. Then as soon as his friend verifies Severus had been telling the truth he just accepts Severus right away? Now with all the continued care and…Damn it! He was not suicidal!

"Why do you care so much whether I'm comfortable or even alive?" Severus shot out as they moved slightly forward.

The question took Potter by surprise for a moment. "I'm a doctor," he began slowly. "I took an oath not to do anyone harm, and negligence is harming someone."

Severus gave Potter a skeptical look and vaguely gestured to his left arm, where the Dark Mark still stained his skin.

"You're also spying _for _Dumbledore, and frankly, having an inside man will be good for the Order when he returns. Oh, also that you're a teacher at Hogwarts," Potter announced like it was obvious. "It would be a problem if you didn't return and Slughorn has to take over." Potter shuddered. "Those kids won't learn a thing. Then again…do they learn anything from you? You never seemed like the patient teacher type"

"I don't tolerate foolishness if that's what you mean," Severus replied slightly offended. Potter raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I'll have you know, all my NEWT students either get accepted into master programs or research positions after graduating."

"And all the other ones?" Potter asked with a slight smile.

Severus huffed, "They are dunderheads who have no business brewing let alone _being_ around complicated potions."

Potter began to chuckle as the line moved a little further. "Well, I suppose that does save upper years from potions accidents."

Severus couldn't help but smirk. "Indeed. Since my posting, the number of potions related accidents has dropped by thirty percent."

Potter turned around incredulously and blinked almost owlishly. "You must be the school board's favorite teacher." Severus couldn't help but preen a little bit at the acknowledgement.

"Indeed, I am."

Potter hummed thoughtfully as he turned back around and absentmindedly ruffled Harry's hair. The boy leaned into the touch.

Severus frowned. "Potter," he called for the man's attention. "Your son _will _be returning, won't he?"

"Don't know," Potter replied casually as the line moved forward once more. "Did you plan on returning? It kind of seems like you've all come up with a one-way ticket."

"Well, the Headmaster hoped you might be alive and would bring your son back to attend Hogwarts. You just needed a reminder."

Potter hummed. "And the Death Eaters planned for this to be an assassination? How would they even know if it worked?"

"They are also assuming Harry will be returned to the magical community come the first day of Hogwarts." Which brought up a topic Severus was trying to not think about—how was _he _supposed to return home? Would he even get the chance to? Perhaps he could recreate the spell that sent him here, but…he didn't think he could power that on his own and didn't want to sacrifice so many people.

"You make it sound like I was kidnapped," Harry piped in, thus stopping Severus' thoughts from spiraling.

"He has a point," Potter chimed in as he once again ruffled the boy's hair.

"And to many witches and wizards, you took away their savior," Severus drawled in return.

"That's stupid," Harry commented. "I'm no Sage or nii-san or—"

"You survived a curse that killed thousands before you. I can see where there might be confusion," Potter cut his son off a little sarcastically. "Though, yes, it is stupid and part of the reason we came here in the first place."

"I'm surprised, Potter," Severus commented with a snort. The one-armed man looked at him over his shoulder. "You're not stoking your son's ego." He couldn't resist the barb—if only to avoid the thought of being trapped here with Potter.

Potter looked skyward and shook his head—like he found Severus' comment both exasperating and amusing. It was not the reaction Severus had been hoping for.

"Are you sure you two didn't date?" Harry suddenly asked, and Severus nearly tripped.

"Harry," Potter replied on an exhale. "Just because I banter with someone does not mean they are or were a romantic interest. You can banter with friends, or, well, I suppose school yard nemeses?" Potter was looking back at Severus questioningly. "That is how you saw me, right?" he asked as if he was still confused by this.

"Considering you and your friends relentlessly—"

"I stopped pranking you when I learned it wasn't in good fun!" Potter immediately cut him off. He looked offended.

"But your delinquent friends didn't stop," Severus snapped back.

The two men stared off at one another before there were several coughs around them. The line had moved forward a bit, and the others in the line were indicating they should move forward. Harry was just watching their exchange fascinated.

One of the people behind them coughed once more before saying something, and both Potters blinked before giving sheepish smiles. They bowed and said something rapidly in that other language before continuing forward. Their family resemblance was even more noticeable then.

They were getting closer to the front of the line at this point, so while Severus wanted to shuffle off elsewhere in a huff, he could also smell the food. His stomach growled again.

Potter was shaking his head. "Stop with the look, Harry," he said tiredly. "Not all school rivals end up like those characters in those romance books."

Harry shrugged. "I know, but…" the boy trailed off to show his skepticism.

Potter covered his face with his hands and groaned while Severus tried not to read too much into that comment. "One way or another, I will make sure Sakura-chan gets scheduled for night-shifts for the next year."

Harry began to pout. "Tousan!" he whined. "It's not her fault. I asked her if—"

Potter promptly covered his son's mouth with his one hand. "Please, for my sanity, stop," the man pleaded while blushing. The boy huffed but nodded.

Severus just blinked as the line moved forward again. He didn't want to know, he really didn't want to know. So he just stared straight forward until he realized the Potters got away with not answering his questions yet again.

Clearing his throat, Severus asked once more, "Will you be returning?" Potter didn't respond for a moment and the line kept moving forward.

"The prophecy," Potter replied after a long moment of glaring ahead of him. "One way or another, Harry will have to confront Voldemort, and if Death Eaters sent you here, it would only be a matter of time before more come that aren't double agents.

"Even if they assume he's dead because he doesn't start school, I can't in good conscious deprive those kids of a competent potions professor or the Order of a spy. So, I'd have to send you back, and eventually your Death Eater allies will learn you failed to assassinate Harry. That will place our home, our friends, and our family in danger." Potter rubbed his face tiredly as he paused. "We just finished one war, I don't want to put everyone through another one…"

"I'll have to fight Voldemort?" Harry whispered beside his father.

"Not alone, and not right away." Potter shook his head almost bitterly. "If your mother and I could have helped it, you'd never have to. We never wanted you to be a soldier."

Harry grabbed his father's hand and leaned more against him. "Mum forgave you already," he whispered and Severus blinked several times.

"I know, and she would have brought you here herself, but that doesn't change that we never wanted this for you. We never wanted you to be a soldier—not in the magical world, and certainly not here." The way Potter said the first part was like he was repeating something. His words weren't the wistfulness of a widower contemplating what his late wife would want. No, it was like he was repeating something his wife had _told_ him.

"At least I'll get to be a kid while at the school, right?" Harry asked like he was offering a solution.

Potter smiled sadly and nodded his head. "That's the hope. That's what we all want for you."

"So, if it wasn't for the prophecy, would you all even return?" Severus asked quietly. The Potters looked back at him.

"If it wasn't for Voldemort, we'd never have left and there would have been no prophecy," Potter replied just as quietly.

"But then we wouldn't have our family," Harry spoke up softly. Potter smiled sadly and nodded.

"Yes, so it does no good questioning what ifs, right?" The father and son leaned against one another for a few moments longer, as if trying to reassure one another.

"But you will both definitively return, with me?" Severus asked carefully. It sounded like Potter would make sure Severus returned to the Wizarding World, so he was going to start operating like that would be the case.

"Harry will be going to Hogwarts," Potter replied as the line continued forward.

Severus narrowed his gaze slightly. That wasn't a sufficient answer, so Severus began to slip through Potter's mental defenses; however, without his wand it was not as simple as it had been with the guards. Potter actually had some mental defenses whereas the guards did not.

"Please stop using legilimency," Potter commented as they continued forward another step. "How can you even do that without a wand?" Potter asked after Severus had stopped his attempts.

"Can you turn into a stag without your wand?" he asked back. He knew it was Potter who had saved him from Luipin's feral transformed self.

"Never tried it," Potter mused before moving out of the line. Potter concentrated but stopped when the line began moving again. He shrugged. Harry appeared confused.

"Pettigrew could, remember he left behind his finger and wand," Severus explained. Potter frowned but began to slowly nod.

"I suppose but he had always been more comfortable as a rat…" Potter trailed off. "Oh!" the man gasped as if he was realizing something, "Legilimency is an internal magic you've mastered!" He paused a moment. "Well that's annoying," Potter groused. The earlier tense mood gone.

"And useful," Severus countered.

"But annoying; I bet no students can get pranks past you."

"Not within my House," Severus drawled.

"Wait you're the McGonagall of the Slytherin house?!" Potter exclaimed incredulously.

"House Head, and _yes_, why is that so difficult to comprehend?"

Potter just shook his head. "I do not envy you. Especially with all those hormonal teens," Potter shuddered again.

Harry was rolling his eyes. "Sex is natural," the boy commented almost chidingly, and Severus nearly tripped while Potter began blushing brightly.

"Harry!" Potter hissed in embarrassment.

"What?" Harry asked with what seemed to be genuine innocence. "Obasan and Ojisan tell you that all the time, and that you should—"

"That's what they say to me in private, not something to say in front of your future teacher."

"Even after I've asked if you two dated? That's where you're drawing the line?" the boy challenged his father.

Severus choked on his own spit and Potter slapped his hand over his eyes. "Because your mother and aunt would joke about that plenty as it was, but talking about-about…mature things is not okay!" Potter was clearly scrambling for words.

Harry just stared back at his father. "And talking about fighting a war is not mature things?" the boy shot back, there was almost a challenging look on the boy's face.

"Harry James Potter," Potter said this as all parents who had reached the end of their patience did. The boy just kept up his challenging stare—even as the line continued moving forward, he purposely walked backwards just to maintain eye contact.

They were three people from the stand at this point, and Severus' mouth began to water. The aroma coming from the clay pots was stronger here, and was different than what he was used to. Nevertheless, it would be welcome compared to the scant bits he had been eating before he lost his appetite. That already felt like an age ago after all the absurd things he had heard since being around the two Potters.

Harry continued to "stare down" his father even after accepting the bowl of food and some metal stick utensils. The boy even carried Severus' bowl for the man. But after getting the food, the boy broke the stare down and they then found some rubble to sit down on. The two Potters said something before they began to dig into the noodle dish with the metal sticks. Potter had his bowl balanced on his leg as he carefully picked up one noodle or vegetable at a time.

"Harry, show Snape how to use his chopsticks," Potter commented as he carefully navigated what appeared to be fish into his mouth. The boy stopped eating for a moment to instruct Severus. The broth was much thinner than the potions master had expected, but that made sense given they were on a former battlefield. It was still a welcome difference from his previous meals.

After lunch, Potter left to do rounds and Harry became Severus' new guard. The boy walked him back to the triage tent and helped him sit down. He was actually thankful to be reclining, his leg was killing him.

The young Potter sat down at one of the empty chairs. The boy began kicking his legs and fiddling with his somehow long hair. Severus was positive the boy's hair had been ear length at most yesterday, but now it was nearly shoulder length.

"Neh, Professor, do you know if my dad ran away from my mum?" the boy asked suddenly.

"Excuse me?"

"Like," Harry began, "when they were first dating, did my dad run away from my mum when they kissed and stuff?"

"Why would you ask me that?" Severus nearly snapped. How the hell did this boy think he could ask him such a thing?

"You were mum's best friend."

"I must not have been to not know anything about this place." Severus realized what he said too late and internally chided himself.

"But Obasan said you knew about mum's bloodline and how she pranked and how insecure she felt about…everything!"

"She didn't tell me about her culture, probably never trusted me enough with that," he confessed. May as well deal with this so he could move on. Maybe it would let him occlude in peace or even sleep.

"Did you ask her?" Harry retorted so much like his father. "'Cause we have a standing rule: we don't mention home unless someone asks and we trust them. So if you didn't ask, mum wouldn't have told you. It's a secrecy thing everyone here does."

The boy was being genuine, and a cursory look at his mind verified what Severus read on his face. Severus looked away from the boy and down at his lap. "Can you get something to elevate my leg?" he asked to distract himself. He had often woken up to find his leg elevated and realized it helped with the pressure.

The boy jumped off the chair and grabbed a pillow from one of the empty cots before bringing it back to Severus. Severus laid down as they worked to elevate his leg. It was quiet for a moment before Harry spoke up again.

"Neh, so did my dad use to run away?" How was the boy still on that? It was strange how Harry was no longer interrogating him like he had the day before. Also, why was the boy so interested in his father's romantic relationships!?

Severus narrowed his gaze at the boy. "Does this have to do with your ridiculous theory of your father and me—" Severus couldn't finish the sentence. He felt like gagging and the way Harry choked on a laugh, perhaps Severus wasn't so good at hiding his disgust.

"No, I promise, I got the message," the boy replied while waving his hands in front of him.

Severus' expression relaxed slightly before he pursed his lips. "Why _are_ you so interested in your father's…love life?" It was a bit disturbing.

Harry looked down at his lap and kicked his legs out a little. "It's just…after Oba-san started dating Gai-san…well, they were both so happy!" the boy looked up at Severus, as if hoping he could understand what Harry couldn't articulate. Severus just raised an eyebrow and the boy frowned and fidgeted with his hair some more. "It's just, after seeing how happy they were, I realized Tousan doesn't have anyone like that, and…and I just want him to be happy!" the boy exclaimed.

Severus sighed and titled his head back to look at the tent ceiling. "I am not someone you should be talking to about this," he muttered.

"But you knew my parents when they were dating, right? So if I know how my dad acted back then, maybe it can help him find someone now?"

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. "Your mother was a singular woman, and I doubt there will ever be someone quite as perfect as her."

Harry huffed. "I know that, but mum told him she wants him to move on, so, shouldn't I help? Shouldn't I keep him from running away from the next person he loves?"

"Mah, children shouldn't talk about their parents' love lives," a lazy voice drawled from by the tent flap. Harry perked up as he turned to face the figure with a greeting on his lips. However, the gray-haired man had no apparent interest in a prolonged conversation with the boy. "Where's your father?" the man's tone was bored still, but there was an edge to it. Severus got the feeling he was displeased that Harry was the one watching over Severus and not Potter.

"Doing rounds," Harry replied. "Neh, are you two fighting?" Harry asked before the man could leave. The boy was fidgeting with his hair again.

The man gave his squinty smile. "When have we ever fought?" he replied before hobbling out of the tent on his crutches.

The boy sighed in exasperation and sat down properly in the chair again. He was playing with the ends of his hair again.

Severus tried to make sense of what the boy had been saying before the interruption—an interruption that Severus suspected was planned by the man. Or perhaps he was growing paranoid after being treated like a prisoner the last several days.

"What were you saying before?" Severus prompted the boy. Harry blinked in confusion, so Severus elaborated. "You said something about wanting your father to move on?"

Harry's eyes widened in recognition before he blushed and ducked his head. "I'm pretty certain Tousan loves someone but he keeps running away and I'm worried they'll never be happy together if he keeps running away!"

Severus waved his hand. Part of him was indignant that Potter could ever love someone after Lily—he should suffer in his grief and never feel love again—but the larger part of him was repeating what Harry had said before. And of course the boy wouldn't get what he had been asking without him explicitly stating it. "No, you said Lily _told_ Potter to move on. As in he's _talked _to her? How so?"

Harry stopped fidgeting and looked away from Severus. The boy was pale.

"What did you mean by that, Mr. Potter?" Severus used his most intimidating teacher voice. It was a tone he had perfected and had a fairly high chance of compelling students to spill whatever secret they were hiding.

The boy let his arms and legs fall limp instead of tensed in their previous position. He was frowning as he stared down at his lap. "We all have an escort waiting for us," Harry whispered.

"Pardon?"

The boy bit his lip. "When we die, there's someone from our life who has already passed waiting for us," the boy whispered. "They're supposed to help in the transition, to make sure we don't become a ghost."

Was Harry saying his father had… "Potter died," Severus gasped. The boy turned back to him and nodded slowly. No, that was impossible. How did Potter cheat death when Lily couldn't!?

Severus could see a memory floating on the edge of Harry's mind and he pulled it forward in his disbelief and anger.

_Smoke and dust filled the air and choked him. He could hear the screams of people off in the distance cut short. Tousan grabbed them all once more. Tai screamed in fear; Daichi told her to hold her breath. They were compressed and shoved through what felt like a straw. With a crack they were on the far side of town. Tousan panted and looked down at the map he'd made of Konoha after the first invasion. _

_The slugs on their backs felt cold but were a comfort. Their Hokage was looking out for them. Tousan rushed over to two fallen ninja. He ran diagnostic tests while Harry watched the map. _

"_Tousan…They're dead," he was looking at their location on the map, and while their names showed up, the two shinobi next to them did not. _

"_Which one did this?" Tousan hissed as he moved away from the corpses and looked at the map. _

"_The Human Path," Harry replied. It was the most obvious choice—it was only three blocks down. They began running in the opposite direction of it. Tousan took the map in both his hands—wand out in one and crumpling the edge of the map—as he tried to look for a clear path. _

_Tousan cursed and quickly cast a shield. Snarling heads, claws the size of a person raking against the shield spell—it was the Animal Path. Harry and Daichi grabbed onto Tousan tightly, Tai screamed in fear. Tousan apparrated away again. They were only twelve blocks away from that Pein. _

"_The Deva Path left Kakashi-san!" Daichi exclaimed and pointed toward the center of the map hanging from Tousan's grasp. _

"_There's still one Pein there!" Tousan replied._

"_It's not moving, it might be knocked out," Harry argued. _

_Tousan bunched the map up into one hand and grabbed all of them. There was another compression and they were deep within the evacuation tunnels. _

"_Keep moving, don't let the Pein's find you. They can't learn where Naruto is!" _

_Tousan was moving away from them. He was going to apparrate away again. Harry launched for his father and managed to grab him just as he was apparrating away. _

_They were in the middle of crater, but all Harry could do was fall to the ground screaming. Blood, there was so much blood and he couldn't stand. Tousan cursed and began casting spells. _

"_James, get out of here!" Kakashi-jisan hissed. _

_Harry could barely breathe through the pain in his leg…or what was left of his leg. It was like a bite had been taken out of his leg, just an empty jagged space where his muscle was supposed to be. _

"_Damn it, Harry, I told you to say there!" Tousan hissed with tears in his eyes_

"_Both of you need to get out of here!" Kakashi-jisan urged again. "The Asura Path is damaged but not dead."_

_Harry looked over to where he heard Kakashi-jisan, but all he saw was rubble. Why was there just rubble?_

"_James, behind!" Kakashi-jisan yelled. Tousan was standing up and casting spells. Shields came up and missiles exploded against them. Harry tried to sit up, to see better but cried out as he flexed the damaged muscles in his leg. The slug began moving down toward his leg, but how was it supposed to heal missing muscle when said muscle was in probably left in the evacuation tunnel. _

_To Harry's left he saw why there was just rubble. Kakashi-jisan had been buried and trapped in rubble, just his chest and head free. There was also a nail protruding from his head. He was looking ahead of him at Tousan who continued to place up shields in front of them. _

_The Asura Path Pein was…was terrifying. Multi-headed, multi-armed, serrated blades coming out of its body. Even mangled, it was sending barrage after barrage of missiles at them. _

"_Three second opening" Kakashi-jisan yelled. Tousan sent three streams of light at the Pein. It dodged two, the last one caught its arm on fire. Tousan erected more shields. Harry watched on helpless. _

"_James, you have to get them out of here," Kakashi-jisan yelled before adding, "Rush!"_

_Tousan dropped the shield and sent out barrage of his own spells, each hit the ground in front of them and erupted with concussive blasts that sent the Pein back. Damaged as it was, it could not move as quickly as most ninja. Tousan didn't let it rest and began firing more spells. One turned the sash like blade to rust and it broke off. All the while, Kakashi-jisan was yelling at them. _

"_Get Harry and Choji out of here. Tell Tsunade-sama the Deva path as a five second interval between—rush!" _

_Tousan cast another spell in front of them that raised a wall of fire from the ground. This did little to deter the monstrous Pein until the ground on the other side of the wall of flame turned to mud and it began to sink. Tousan waved his wand some more. He was visibly shaking from the effort as he tried to keep this monster back. _

"_Damn it, James, listen to me!" Kakashi-jisan cursed when Tousan ignored him and sent another barrage of spells that lit the Asura Path on fire. _

_Kakashi-jisan turned to look in Harry's direction, but he was staring past him. "Choji, tell Tsunade-sama what we learned. Take Harry with you!"Kakashi-jisan was yelling and Harry followed his gaze to the right. Choji was beginning to stand up. _

_Tousan was doing his best to keep the Pein back with spells and hexes. When Tousan managed to spell the monster's limbs together, it would rearrange its body to break the spell. But it was struggling, and that gave Harry hope they could all get out. _

_Why was he just sitting here being useless?! He promised to never be useless during an invasion again. Harry began to grab at the rubble constraining Kakashi-jisan. He had to get him out, but muscular arms were wrapping around him, pulling him away. Harry tried to kick out of Choji's hold but the pain in his leg was too much despite the slug's efforts to heal him. _

_Choji was running with Harry in his arms. Harry twisted around to see his Tousan still fighting off that monstrous Pein, and Kakashi-jisan trapped in the rubble. Jisan's eye saw something before either of them and there was a look of horror on his face as he shifted to look at Harry and Choji. _

_Harry didn't know what happened next, only that he and Choji fell or were pushed away as missiles got past Tousan's shields. Harry's ears were ringing and dust choked his lungs. The missiles had exploded right where they had been. _

"_Kakashi!" _

_Dazed, Harry looked toward the muted yell and saw his father slinging spell after spell toward the Asura Path Pein. Kakashi-jisan was slumped over in the rubble pile, but Harry could see his mismatched eyes staring at them, unblinking, and Sharingan no longer spinning. They were growing glassy—like Midori's during the Sound Invasion. _

_Choji was picking Harry up again and running, but Harry looked behind. Tousan's magic was failing. The Asura Path broke Tousan's defenses. Razor chains wrapped around Tousan's wand arm while one of its extra hands crushed Tousan's throat. It was a hand Tousan had caught on fire with his last spell barrage. It got father away, but Harry could still see the blood spray. He saw Tousan's arm fly away, and practically heard a crunching sound—his Tousan's head hung limp from where the Pein held his throat. Then Tousan fell to the ground as limp as Kakashi-jisan._

_Harry screamed, the Asura Path charged them as best it could. The pain in Harry's leg was nothing compared to what happened when the chains erupted from him. He stayed conscious long enough to see the chains rip the remaining arms from the Pein. _

Severus pulled out of the boy's mind and covered his mouth with one hand. He hadn't meant to do that or see it through the end, but the emotions in that memory were so overwhelming. He was sucked into it, unable to tear away from it without his wand to refine the legilimency.

The boy was crying into his hands. Severus felt moisture on his own face. It was as if…as if Severus had just watched his own role-models, his father-figures, die right in front of him. The loss, the hopelessness, the _pain._ It was debilitating, somehow more so than Lily's death. What Harry had lost that day, for however inexplicably brief it was, was safety. The world was no longer safe. Was this what he was supposed to feel when his parents died? If they had fostered a safe and loving environment, would their death have wrecked him like this?

"I-I'm sorry," Harry choked out. "I don't usually…I try to think about the positives." The boy was wiping at his tears and trying to get his breathing under control. "Nii-san convinced Nagato to bring back those he killed, so I shouldn't be so upset." The boy ran his hand under his running nose.

"No matter how brief it was, they had died," Severus heard himself say. "You have every right to mourn that." The boy looked up at him with wide eyes and Severus coughed. Part of him wanted to believe Harry imagined his father and father's friend dying, but Severus was beginning to think they were literal in all they had said. Every outlandish thing they said was somehow true. What the hell was this place?

Harry was trying to regain control over his emotions, and breathed in shakily. Severus felt a pang of guilt. He had made the child relieve his worst (if not one of his worst) memories. He felt sick.

"I suppose," Severus began with another cough, "I could tell you about what I remember of your parents from our Hogwarts years."

Harry sniffed and wiped at some lingering tears.

"I'm afraid I had drifted apart from your mother by the time she and your father had started…started dating, but Lily was never shy about going after what she wanted. In fact," Severus cleared his throat, hoping to get rid of the tightness there. "In fact, she had a sort of single-minded determinedness when it came to completing her goals."

"That's an Uzumaki trait," Harry whispered with a watery smile.

"Oh? Well it got us into a whole slew of trouble with the upperclassmen."

"Really?"

Severus nodded and smiled slightly. "Plenty of upperclassmen purebloods thought neither of us deserved to be at Hogwarts, and by Merlin did we prank them for each mudblood and blood traitor comment."

Severus' voice was shaky at first but grew stronger. The boy was still sniffing but appeared interested and was beginning to calm down. Severus launched into the story of how they enchanted some mistletoe to ring obnoxiously above one specific pureblood whenever he was near muggle-born students during the Yuletide. From there he talked about a prank on Nott after the bastard had taken Severus' homework and tried to pass it off as his own.

Before long, Severus was telling the boy about the best pranks he and Lily had done on Potter's gang. He was in the middle of one story when he heard a chuckle from the tent flap.

"I thought that was you and Lily, but I could never confirm it," Potter stated as he made his way into the triage tent.

Severus didn't say anything, remembering their confrontation outside of the hospital wing when Lily had almost died. Severus still didn't understand Potter's perspective on friendship and pranking. Potter would never make sense.

"Neh, Harry, your friends are looking for you. Why don't you go play for a bit before you're all called away?" Potter suggested to his son. He was giving a rather forced smile. Was the man also recalling that exchange from fourth year?

The boy nodded after a moment and raced out of the tent. Potter took the boy's place and looked over to Severus. "So…what brought those stories on?"

"Nothing," Severus replied as he stared up at the tent ceiling. He was sitting in front of a man who had cheated death. That was something the Dark Lord had sought, and yet it seemed like many people got a second chance at life in this world.

"Uh-huh," Potter began unconvinced. "You know, Kakashi-san is like my best friend, even though he's more of an emotionally stunted, passive aggressive, asshole than you are."

"Was that a roundabout way of saying—"

"That you're an asshole, yeah," Potter chirped and ignored Severus' glare. "But what I'm really saying is the innocent act doesn't work on me."

Severus raised an imperious eyebrow. "Your son just asked for some Hogwarts stories."

Potter hummed disbelievingly. "My son would be asking for stories that reveal the inner politics of the school, not frivolous pranks." Severus felt his eye twitch at Potter's casual response. "I mean, I wish Harry would express more of an interest in pranks, but Kakashi convinced my boys to pursue more productive endeavors." He sighed at the loss and Severus just glared.

Potter smiled a little. "Well? Want to tell me, or do I need to guess?" he challenged. Potter waited for him to respond in some way, but Severus refused. He didn't have to explain why he was telling the boy those stories, especially since he didn't want to rationalize why he had either.

Potter sighed. "Alright, Kakashi-san always says 'nothing' when I ask him why he taught my son some trick or prank. You know what it tells me?" the man asked rhetorically. "It tells me he had said something to upset Harry and felt guilty so tried to distract Harry. And I gotta tell you, personal stories about happy times, oh...that means Kakashi-san _really _messed up with Harry and is trying to make the kid happy. So, what happened that upset my child so much you'd tell him personal stories?"

"Just because your friend and I might have some similarities—"

"Did you paint some picture about how I was an unrepentant bully? Because I stopped pranking you back when I learned it wasn't in good fun," Potter shot back. "I've raised Harry to know the difference between friendly pranks and malicious ones, so don't—"

"He explained that you died and Lily was waiting for you," Severus's words were quiet and shaking slightly. "I couldn't believe that, until I…" Severus trailed off. "He was thinking about it, and I…I may have pulled the memory more to the surface than it should have been." Severus bit his tongue before he could add on that it was an accident; he didn't need to justify himself to Potter. Even though it truly was an accident; when a young mind had such raw emotions about an event, the memories could be more easily pulled to the surface.

"You made him relive it," Potter deduced in a neutral tone that somehow did not sound accusatory. Potter pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm guessing it was accidental; you can't be that cruel to purposefully make a child relive a traumatic experience."

Severus looked to the side and didn't say anything. Potter sighed heavily. "I'm not mad," he stated.

"I wouldn't care if you were," Severus snapped back.

"Sure," Potter replied disbelievingly before smiling sadly.

"So…" the one-armed man prompted. Severus just raised an eyebrow in response. Potter dropped his head forward and shook his head. "I'm guessing you have some questions about dying but are too proud to ask, right?"

"It isn't that—"Severus cut himself off when he saw Potter's knowing look. The potions master scowled and folded his arm over his chest before sniffing and looking away from Potter. "I just still find it hard to believe you truly died. It could be some prank done in poor taste."

"Oh, trust me, we don't pull pranks about death," Potter replied with a shake of his head. "I grounded Naruto for weeks when he tried that sort of joke on me."

The reminiscent smile on Potter's face dropped. "No, Snape, I really died." Potter looked off to the side before he continued. "The Asura Path Pein crushed my throat like it was paper," Potter's voice shook slightly. "The Hokage's summons couldn't heal the damage."

"What?"

Potter blinked and started laughing uneasily. "Ah, it's hard to explain, but basically, Tsunade-sama summoned this giant slug that split into thousands of smaller slugs and attached to every citizen."

"What in Merlin's name is that supposed to mean!?"

Potter laughed again and rubbed the back of his head with his lone hand. In Severus' mind's eye, he could recall the moment the man's right arm was cut. His gaze shifted to that appendage, to the knotted point on the sleeve just above the elbow.

"Okay, so…some shinobi can make contracts with giant, sentient animals that allow them to summon said giant, sentient animals. And, uh, Tsunade-sama can use hers to heal people, and so by having it split into thousands of—Hey, I know it's bizarre, but it kept a lot of people alive during that attack."

Severus blinked several times. Sometime during that description, he had shifted his focus away from Potter's nub-arm to staring at the man like he had three heads—which was also apparently a thing! "This world is insane." He did recall a slug being on Harry's body and trying to heal his splinched leg, but Severus had ignored the absurdity of it.

"Another reason Lily didn't want Harry growing up here," Potter mumbled.

"Then why did you come here?" Severus couldn't help but ask.

Potter sobered and looked away from Severus. "It was too painful to stay there without her and we hoped Harry might be safer here."

"But you said the Proph—"

"Back then, we thought we could circumvent the Prophecy somehow by being here." Potter replied before Severus could even finish his sentence.

"And what changed?" Severus shot back.

"Like I said, all the destruction you saw out there," Potter gestured with his thumb toward the tent flap, "was prophesized to one degree or another." Potter sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Naruto, the kid I adopted not long after coming here, he was part of the prophecy. We have some agency, but not much when fates are intertwined."

"So you might as well bring your son back to face his destiny?" Severus replied, admittedly glad the man thought to finally explain who this Naruto guy was.

Potter nodded slowly. "And frankly, Lily and I both agree the Wizarding World was a bit safer than the Elemental Lands. We knew there would be war here, but we had hoped…" he sighed and shook his head.

"What do you mean? If you both thought our world would be safer—"

"When I died, Lily and I talked," Potter interrupted and held Severus' gaze for a moment so he could read the man's surface thoughts. Severus broke eye-contact first, far too unnerved by the utter seriousness with which Potter regarded the matter.

Potter continued his story. "She was sitting on a bench on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Or maybe that was just what my mind made up because it wasn't quite the same platform..." Potter trailed off and looked into the distance.

"She was waiting for you," Severus breathed and wondered if she might wait for him when his time came.

Potter smiled sadly and nodded. "Yeah, but she won't be there the next time." Severus' stomach dropped.

"Why?"

Potter furrowed his brow as he tried to parse out how to explain this. "She said her father was waiting for her in her childhood home, and they sat and talked in his workshop…" he trailed off.

"It might be easier for me to see—"

Potter bolted up right and shook his head—his face was bright red. "No!" Severus coughed and looked elsewhere.

"Right, well…why wouldn't she be waiting for you your next death?" Severus coughed again and really tried not to feel jealous or sick. He did not want to think about what Potter and Lily did during their brief time together in the afterlife.

"Well, from what I understood, it works sort of like torch bearing. Once she and her father talked and resolved what they needed to, she was to wait for me and guide me forward. Then I would presumably wait for Harry's time and guide him or whoever it ends up being. Perhaps it will be one of my friends?" Potter trailed off thoughtfully.

"And if issues are not resolved, if the torch is not carried on…ghosts are created?" Severus deduced.

"Yeah, that's what it sounded like."

Severus stared up at the canvas ceiling in disbelief. He wouldn't get to see Lily again, until perhaps he moved on past his own time torch bearing—as Potter put it.

"How were you even able to come back?" Severus asked faintly.

"Naruto has a way of convincing his enemies to…well, repent for lack of a better term." Potter smiled a little sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck, but Severus could not mistake the pride he had for this Naruto kid. "The man behind the assault on Konoha, Naruto healed some of his metaphorical pain and convinced him to undo some of the pain he had wrought on the village.

"So there Lily and I were talking on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, when she stands up, looks around surprised, and tells me to get back to our son because my 'lucky' among other descriptors 'arse has a second chance, so don't screw it up, idiot.'" Potter was blushing slightly. His blush only grew and he coughed while looking away from Severus. "I really shouldn't have told Harry she wanted me to get married again," he mumbled and scrubbed his face.

"Lily, the woman who would covertly hex anyone who stared at you too long, wants you to get married again?" Severus repeated slowly and in disbelief. Lily had a single-minded determination, like Severus said, and sometimes that came out in some fairly possessive ways.

Potters face just grew redder and he shook his head and arms violently. "Nope, not talking about it with you!"

Severus watched his former school-yard bully blush like some embarrassed school girl because of whatever his wife told him. Of course.

Severus snorted before he began laughing in genuine disbelief. This world was crazy and the Potter/Uzumaki families just made it crazier.

Severus tried to keep his laughter under control, but Potter was still bright red and each time Severus laughed the man just got redder. Potter was even pouting like some petulant child. It probably didn't help that once Severus started laughing a sort of hysteric quality entered it because Potter had _died _and was back from the dead. Plus, there were giant sentient creatures that could heal, and humans with multiple faces and arms and saws coming out of their stomachs! This place was utter insanity, why had Potter ever thought to bring his family here!

Just when Severus was prepared to just accept the absurdity, he thought about what his fellow witches and wizards would think. After all, they all thought Evans was muggle, and yet she could do… Oh, the wizarding world would not believe what was coming back to them. They wouldn't be prepared at all. Severus continued laughing while covering his eyes with his arm.

"Snape," Potter called worriedly, and damn it that was absurd too. Severus choked on another bout of laughter and was left gasping.

Severus was laughing so hard he felt like he couldn't breathe, let alone hear anything else, and then, he was inexplicably calming down.

"Did you just cast a calming spell on me?" he asked Potter incredulously. There it was again, the most absurd part of it all, James Potter the healer and caretaker of school yard nemeses.

"This is complete insanity."

"I got that from your hysteric laughter," Potter replied. He looked both annoyed but also concerned. "Should I see if I can find a calming drought or something in your trunk? Not sure how long the spell will last."

Severus exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. He began to occlude. "I didn't pack any calming draughts."

"Right, well it seems like you're getting a hold of yourself," Potter replied. Severus just nodded his head and after perhaps a minute he felt centered again.

"So, I brought my wand," Potter started once Severus opened his eyes. "I can cast a cleaning charm if you like." Severus couldn't stop from scrunching up his nose. "Otherwise," Potter continued, "there's probably an orderly that can give you a sponge—"

"The charms will be fine," Severus rushed out. Potter gave an almost cheeky smile as he began to cast the spell.

Severus' skin itched after the spell was done, but he couldn't complain, at least he _felt _clean. Potter then sat down in his chair and began fiddling with his wand.

"Um," Potter began, "about the other night, I didn't mean to say Lily never trusted—"

"Your son clarified things," Severus cut him off. "I wasn't a good friend if I didn't ask her those basic questions," he added under his breath. Damn it, why was he being so honest; he should have just thought that and not said it. He needed to…he needed to get out of here. It was clearly this dimension that was causing these less than composed bouts from him.

"I was an annoying friend she didn't trust with the truth until fifth year," Potter replied back, as if to make Severus feel better. "Lily was raised to be secretive, and I guess Harry has been too."

Potter glanced off to the side and frowned. "You know, we really didn't want him to be raised here, but we needed a contingency in case Peter betrayed us…in case the wizarding world was no longer safe."

Severus closed his eyes. And when Potter _died_ he and Lily agreed it was the best move at the time and that Harry would eventually need to return. This was madness. Would any of this even have happened if… If Severus never repeated the snippet of that prophecy to the Dark Lord; if Potter had stayed with Lily that night; if a thousand other things hadn't occurred.

"Why weren't you there that night?" Severus asked quietly—it was the only "what if" he had not come to some sort of terms with. "Why weren't you with her?" Instead of the anger and hatred Severus had always dreamed of spitting at Potter when he asked those questions, his words instead were neutral. This man had gone through so much in the last ten years, and it was (as much as he hated to admit it) humbling.

"Lily told me to go but I should have come back sooner…" Potter mumbled.

"Why?" Severus couldn't help but whisper.

However, before Potter could reply, a familiar and judgmental voice piped in. "And how am I not surprised this is what you'd want to talk about, Spinner's End?" Oh, the annoying voice of Petunia Evans. Severus glared toward the tent flap.

There stood Petunia Evans, or perhaps it was now Botan Uzumaki? She was pushing a man in a wheelchair. The man had the thickest eyebrows Severus had ever seen, and his black hair looked like someone cut it using a bowl for the shape. The man was also incredibly muscular but his whole body was covered in bandages. The little girl from the other day was sitting in the man's lap.

The man asked something in that other language and the blonde woman responded. Understanding lit the man's face.

"Hello!" the dark haired man greeted loudly and awkwardly to Severus. "I am Mighty Guy," he introduced himself awkwardly, but Severus was sure he heard wrong. Was the man saying he was a mighty guy? He appeared it but…

"Otousan! It's Gai Maito," the little girl corrected, though the correction was minor.

The man frowned and tilted his head back toward Petunia. She smiled slightly. "You don't have to change how you pronounce your name, love, just the order." The man beamed at the response, and his teeth flashed in the light.

"I'm afraid I haven't seen Kakashi-san since this morning, Gai-san. If you wish to talk to him—"

"No, question for Spinner," Gai said loudly and uncertainly. Tai titled her head back against the man's chest and smiled up at him. Potter frowned momentarily.

"My name is Severus Snape," Severus drawled. Ev-Uzumaki rolled her eyes and Severus gave her a deadpan glare.

The thick-eyebrow man nodded seriously before flashing a smile and giving him a thumbs up that looked more like a sideways thumbs up since he seemed to have limited mobility. "Okay!" he practically shouted. Severus felt his eye twitch slightly at the volume. How could loudness be hereditary? Then again, the blonde boy couldn't be that man's son because E-Uzumaki had a child from her previous marriage.

The man (Gai)'s arms twitched slightly but remained resting at his side—Uzumaki began rolling the man closer to Severus' bedside. The man gave his presumed wife an almost weak smile of appreciation. Tai and Potter noticed the exchange and frowned.

Severus closed his eyes as he connected the dots. Daichi, the blonde child, had been distraught about his otousan—the same title Harry kept calling his own father, Severus realized—not being able to walk again. This Gai was paralyzed, and given his physique, he had likely been a formidable warrior. Severus couldn't imagine the devastation Gai felt with his paralysis.

"Ah, Severus," Gai stumbled over his name. "Daichi goes to pig place too, yes?"

"Hogwarts," Potter corrected almost absentmindedly as his expression began to relax. That horrid blonde woman just shrugged as if to say "what's the difference?"

"That depends," Severus responded after realizing they were all looking to him. "Has he exhibited accidental magic?"

While Gai seemed confused, Ev-_Uzumaki_ responded. "No, he has not exhibited accidental magic, but he does have unbalanced chakra. We've tried correcting it over the years, but…" the woman trailed off.

Potter picked up for her, "He has just a bit too much spiritual energy, but it hasn't manifested as accidental magic yet. Could this pose as a problem? He might read as a muggle or even squib to most, but he could channel his unbalanced chakra through a wand."

"Has he tried using such an alternative channel?" Severus asked almost tiredly. He didn't know much or really anything about wands and channeling magic beyond what was needed for most spells. The whole concept of unbalanced energies threw in a whole new element he did not know how to account for.

"I've had the boys practice a few charms using my wand, but…" Potter trailed off with a grimace. "My wand doesn't like them."

Severus closed his eyes. He was not well enough to have a conversation about sentient wands—that was just as ridiculous as giant, sentient animals. "You sound like Olivander," he drawled but quickly shook his head. "I do not know what to tell you. That would ultimately be a call for the Headmaster."

"But Harry need Diachi!" Gai yelled, clearly catching enough of the conversation to respond.

Potter and _Uzumaki_ nodded in agreement. "I would feel better with Harry going off to Hogwarts if he had an ally," Potter mumbled. Severus only hummed uncertainly; it really was a call for the Headmaster.

Uzumaki then leaned down toward her daughter. "Tai, why don't you go play with your brother and cousin for a bit while we figure this out, hmm?" she suggested.

The young girl looked confused but then shrugged, jumped off her father's lap, and ran out of the tent. Once the flaps closed, Potter, Gai, and Uzumaki exchanged glances before nodding. Potter pulled out his wand and began to cast a secrecy charm. The atmosphere in the room took a 180 degree turn.

"Now for the more pressing matters," Potter began as he turned to Gai. ***

Gai closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Your chakra…" he began, "have your people…can they heal me?" he asked slowly without looking at Severus. He should have expected the question but the Evans family's distain for magical practices had made him skeptical anyone from their homeworld might find it beneficial. Then again, Gai did not sound hopeful.

Severus looked at the tent flap while he tried to organize his thoughts. Was this another reason Potter was agreeing to have his son go to Hogwarts? Or perhaps a reason for Potter to return himself?

There was a tense silence that felt like a minute but was really only a few seconds. "I specialize in potions, and combat spells. While I know a number of healing potions, I would need to know more about your condition."

Gai nodded slowly after he processed the response. He then looked back at Uzumaki and said something in the other language. Uzumaki frowned but nodded in return.

"My husband used a technique which opens his chakra pathways beyond normal human…capabilities. In doing so, it tears his muscles, puts strain on his internal organs, and fries his nerves." She looked elsewhere for a moment. "Most individuals who open their chakra to the same extent he did, had spontaneously combust—died." Severus could feel the emotion the long-necked woman was trying to keep back.

Potter piped in at this moment. "It would be like connecting your magic with another person or source, but instead of the combined power being distributed between two bodies, it is only contained in one."

Severus paled as he came to understand Potter's analogy. "Oh…" Severus blinked a few times as he wracked his brain for possible solutions. These people were insane!

"The first potions I can think of that might grant you some mobility are highly addictive and atrophy the other senses," Severus replied after a moment. "With the healing magicks, I am not sure what progress has been made. Wizards and witches have always been able to re-stimulate severed nerves, but with such extensive damage…" Severus trailed off and shook his head. "I cannot promise anything."

"Unlikely but possible?" Gai asked slowly and awkwardly. Severus only nodded. It was quiet for another long moment.

Potter turned to Uzumaki with a slight frown. "We can look into it, and I'm sure my family funds can cover expenses."

Gai frowned and shook his head. He said something in the other language solemnly. Uzumaki rolled her eyes but smiled fondly and Potter just set a hand on the man's shoulder.

"You are part of the Uzumaki clan now," Potter began before adding something else on in that other language. Gai closed his eyes as if holding back tears.

Severus looked away from the display. "Is there anything else I can help with?" he asked after he gave the wheel-chair bound man a moment to compose himself.

There was a silent exchange before Uzumaki sighed heavily. "You wanted to know how we got here, hadn't you?"

"Yes, and why…" Severus trailed off as he looked over to Potter.

Uzumaki rolled her eyes again, "If you're trying to blame James for not being there for my sister, you should blame me."

"Excuse me?" Severus questioned. Uzumaki looked over at Potter.

"Why don't you share the memory, it's less troublesome than explaining it verbally," the woman drawled, though the way she avoided looking at any of them suggested the emotions she was trying to keep back. Potter frowned before looking over at Severus.

"I don't suppose you had packed a portable pensieve?" he asked tiredly. Severus shook his head. Potter frowned more. "Then it can't be helped," he mumbled before giving Severus a glare. "If you dig around more than you should, I will give you boils," he threatened.

"What happened to your doctor oath," Severus couldn't resist snarking.

Potter glared for a moment longer before he snorted. "Touché," he conceded with a slight smirk. "But I'm sure I can find a few genin who could practice their disguising skills on you."

Uzumaki began to smirk. "I doubt anyone could make him appear feminine or…anything else," the woman drawled with a roll of her wrist.

"I don't know, remember when Harry and Daichi went undercover for a week as Hanako and Seiko?"

Uzumaki groaned. "I blame Naruto-kun for their obsession with cross-dressing."

Potter just shrugged, "I wouldn't call it obsession—more like exploring different identities." Severus stared at them in disbelief. Gai just chuckled and said something in his native language loudly.

"Excuse me?" Severus couldn't help but ask faintly. "Are you saying you'll sic your children on me and they'll-they'll play dress-up with me?"

Potter nodded and smiled. "Yep, so don't dig too deep because Harry gets really serious with disguise projects."

Severus closed his eyes and just shook his head. "Do you mean to tell me you're going to lower your mental defenses?" Severus asked. Potter shrugged.

"Botan was right, it's easier than…than saying after knowing what happened," Potter added the last part a bit solemnly and the previously jovial atmosphere froze over.

Pushing aside the earlier absurdity, Severus knew he couldn't let this opportunity pass, especially since it would let him see Lily again. He focused on Potter's surface thoughts, which expressed his regret before they slowly focused in on one grief filled memory.

_James was chasing after Harry as he nearly waddled into one of the traps his wife and sister-in-law and been putting around the house. This was going to give James gray hair at this rate. Just as James was redirecting Harry's trajectory, the fireplace flared to life with green flames. Out stepped his sister-in-law. She was carrying her son, Dudley, who frankly looked more like a pink beach ball than a baby. _

"_Tuney!" Lily exclaimed as she suddenly appeared from another room. She had some grease smeared across her fingers, which meant she had been adjusting one of the many traps scattered throughout the house. Wonderful, James thought. _

"_Lily," Petunia greeted in return as she dusted off some soot from her coat. She then set her son down in the play pen. The woman then held out some mail to James. "I picked it up from Black's place. He was hungover and won't know it ever came or was missing." _

_Potter groaned as he accepted the mail with one hand while he continued to hold Harry. "Besides mail, are you here to booby-trap my house more?" Potter asked tiredly as he set Harry down in the play pen._

_Harry immediately moved toward the sitting Dudley. The little beach ball was holding onto his feet as he bounced in his seated position. Harry, ever the inquisitive one, was examining Dudley curiously before grabbing a nearby toy. He held up the small hippogriff figurine to Dudley who examined it for a moment. Then the two began playing with it, but the enchanted figurine flew off. Thus the boys began chasing after it within the pen. _

_While the two women were distracted by the children, Potter began looking through the mail the blonde sister had brought along. _

"_Thank you for bringing this Petunia, but surely Sirius is going to notice. I mean you must have tripped his wards, and it's going to be hard to explain—"_

"_Relax James," Lily interjected as she tore her gaze from the children. "Tuney wouldn't have made such a mistake."_

"_I used that seal you and father had made. I bypassed the wards easily," Petunia confirmed._

"_Fine," Potter relented. "Besides the mail, why else are you here? I thought you two were still fighting over…" Potter trailed off and waved his hand dismissively. _

_The two sisters glared at each other for a moment. "I'm not helping you poison your husband. You should just divorce him," Lily snapped. _

"_Vernon might be an idiot and easy to manipulate, but he'll eventually figure it out and then he won't let me near my baby," Petunia shot back._

"_The American's dropped the search on mum and dad already; no one's looking for you anymore, you don't need the camouflage." _

"_Mother and father had made a lot of underworld contacts in their mercenary work, and I had started to meet some. If governments start putting pressure on any of them, I could be exposed." The sisters had a short staring match. "Even the plan of killing off Vernon and going into hiding is risky. Honestly, the only way I'll feel safe is if you help figure out how to go home," the blonde stated firmly._

_Potter knew what was going to come next. He loved Lily and would always support which ever choices she made, especially if they were to protect their family. Even so, sometimes he wished Lily was less stubborn about this topic. _

"_I'm not staying in the Wizarding world without you," Lily stated with a tight voice. Potter no long felt hurt by the statement, since he knew Lily would take him wherever she went. "But neither am I going to raise my son in a world where children are taught how to kill!" she hissed. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. _

"_Isn't that what your wizarding world is doing anyways?" Petunia argued. "You two were fighting this war while still in school, so how is that different from—"_

"_Because we had a choice!" Lily yelled in return. It was silent for a half-second before both little boys began to cry loudly. _

_James rushed to Harry's side and began to soothe him while the blonde woman comforted her rotund son. Lily's arms were shaking by her side and her face was flushed slightly in her anger. Her red hair had even begun to separate into sections as her magic filled the air. _

"_I don't care if you think that place is safe," Lily continued with a trembling voice. "I won't have my son raised to be soldier. I won't have him live like we had." _

_The blonde sister was bouncing her son against her hip. "That was Mother's doing. You know Father wanted differently for us," she whispered. _

"_Well his people are dead, which means we would only be welcomed among mother's people." _

"_What about Konoha?" the sister asked. "Uzumaki Mito was married to their founding leader, surely we'd be welcomed."_

"_And if they find out our mother was from Iwa?" Lily shot back. _

"_I'd rather risk that than risk losing you to this megalomaniac wizard." _

_If James didn't step in, this would devolve quickly, but at the same time, Lily would have normally cut the conversation short by now—they never got close to saying where they might go back in their ancestral home world. Perhaps it was because they had been in hiding for months? Perhaps she felt Voldemort was closing on them? _

"_Lily," James chimed in. "Perhaps we should look into this. If only as a last resort. Voldemort won't be able to find us there, right?" Potter was bouncing Harry against his hip as well, and the boys' cries were finally dying down. _

"_Do you want him becoming a soldier?" Lily asked a bit hurt. _

_James smiled sadly. "Isn't that already his destiny? Isn't that why we're hiding?" he asked quietly. "Your people use magic differently and it could save him. It could be the power Voldemort 'knows not.'"_

_Lily bit her lip and sat down heavily in a nearby armchair. "I don't like this James," she confessed with tears at her eyes. "What if he's like me? What if he can't use chakra like he's supposed to?"_

_Petunia moved to kneel before her sister. She set her free hand against Lily's clasped hands. "Lily, even if you can't use chakra like I can, you know more about seals and chakra than I ever could. Harry will be just as resourceful as you."_

_Lily was at a loss for words, but something still made her hesitate—James could tell. With effort, she finally whispered, "I don't want him to grow up like us." _

"_That's why would should go to Konoha," Petunia replied. "You know what Mother always said about them." _

_Lily gave a weak, teary laugh. "'Those tree-hugging thumb-suckers…'"_

"'…_wouldn't know how to kill a cow let alone a ninja,'" the sister finished and the two laughed slightly. _

_There was a moment of quiet. "So what?" Lily asked weakly as she wiped at her unshed tears. "We seek asylum as Uzumaki?"_

"_Yes, and you know how Konoha are bleeding hearts for bloodline refugees," Petunia commented wryly. _

_Lily sniffed slightly. "Oh yes, so selfless they are," she added sarcastically. The two laughed a little more. However, Lily sobered first and began to frown. "They are going to want us to have so many babies," she commented a little lost. She looked over to her husband who was wearing a bewildered look. "They are going to want us to have so many babies, James." _

_James blinked owlishly and was frozen in place with panic. His mind was racing. "…I…" He kept opening and closing his mouth. "I love you, Lily, but…" he began shaking his head, and Lily only smiled at him understandingly. He exhaled heavily in relief, and the woman looked down at her lap again. She then began to laugh, but it held a morbid edge. It was the laugh of someone who had run out of all possibilities and was choosing the lesser of two evils. _

_The sisters parted after a moment and a sort of peace reestablished itself. The toddlers were set back down in the play pen and were playing together once more. James waved his wand to prepare tea. The sisters seemed to be lost in their thoughts, so James quickly finished up tea and set if before the three of them. _

"_Okay, so we're going to jump ship and go to your ancestral home," James stated, in part to help him organize his thoughts. "We're doing this for sure?" he asked. The sisters nodded. _

"_Do you still have father's seals and notes?" Petunia asked Lily. _

_The red haired woman nodded once before standing up. A few minutes later, she returned with a rolled up scroll. She handed it to the blonde who unraveled it. The woman cut her thumb and ran through a few hand signs before she pressed her bleeding thumb to the paper. A poof of smoke later and scattered pieces of paper and scrolls appeared atop the first opened scroll. There were also bottles of ink and brushes. _

_James moved away from what would soon be a mess of papers and watched the women from near the playpen. The two sisters began speaking rapidly in what he realized was not English anymore; every now and then an English word slipped into what they were saying but they were primarily speaking another language as they sifted through different arrays and sigils. It looked akin to arithmancy and ancient runes but James knew it was not. _

_The sisters were writing notes on parchment and occasionally Lily asked James to fetch one tome or another or give his opinion on the limits of apparation. Sometimes the two forgot to codeswitch and would ask him something he only understood half of. Still the hours passed and James looked after the little boys while the two sisters planned and theorized. _

_They broke for lunch, which James managed to prepare. It was sandwiches, but the two sisters did not complain—they were too engrossed in their work to care. It was half-past four when they began to explain in English what they had been working on and what theories they were using. It was clear both women had been thinking of traveling home for longer than just this day. Even if Lily hadn't agreed to before, she had thought on the subject often enough—likely as a brain teaser more than anything. _

_Trans-dimensional travel. It seemed unreal to James, but his wife and her sister were proof that one could traverse dimensions. Well, they hadn't traveled dimensions but their parents had. _

_From what James recalled, Lily's parents had fled their home dimension because they had fallen in love despite being enemies. Mrs. Evans (as Mr. Potter knew her to be) had been called a defector and her countrymen planned to kill her. Mr. Evans refused to let this come to pass, especially since Mrs. Evans was pregnant with Petunia. Thus Mr. Evans came up with a way to escape. It was mostly by accident but it worked in the end. _

_Petunia looked up at the clock after explaining what they had accomplished. "Oh dear," she exclaimed. "Vernon will be home soon."_

"_Why did you marry that duffer again?" Lily asked as she looked up from her notes. _

"_Besides being wanted as an associate of mother and father?" Petunia drawled. "Well, a single woman, even with a degree, does not get very far in this world," she added with a sigh._

"_You could have found someone more tolerable and that you actually fancied."_

"_Yes, but they were always too clever or I wasn't pretty enough," the sister replied with a sigh. Lily frowned slightly and touched her sister's arm comfortingly. The woman shook her head and gave the red haired sister a forced smile. _

"_Well, Vernon will not becoming with us, so…" the older sister trialed off and began to tidy up the space around her. She then stood up and took Dudley into her arms. _

"_I should be going," the woman stated stiffly as she moved toward the fireplace. _

"_James, you should make sure Sirius won't be a problem for her," Lily commented and James nodded. _

"_Of course, Lily," he replied with a smile. "I should also remind him to take it easy tonight too. You know how he's always gotten when it's All Hollow's Eve." _

_Lily smiled and rolled her eyes slightly. "That man can be such dog," she commented with a shake of her head. "Why don't you go ahead then?" she suggested as she stood up from the pile of notes. She hesitated a moment, and James managed not to wince. He wasn't that…reserved. _

"_I don't mind kisses," he reassured his wife before pecking her on the lips. She gave him a peck back before he moved to fire place. He then grabbed a handful of floo powder and tossed it into the fire. Because the house was cut off from the floo network, there was only one destination he could go to, so he just stepped straight through._

_Sirius greeted James excitedly, but a look at the bags under Sirius' eyes and the mess in his flat, well James knew he'd have to stay here for a bit just to make sure his friend didn't do something stupid._

Severus retracted from the memory but was overwhelmed with Potter's grief.

"I returned home just after…" Potter mumbled. "I rescued Harry from the nursery fire and found the notes they made in Lily's study." Potter's voice was tight and trembling.

"Why didn't you return earlier?" Severus asked quietly. "If you had been there then—"

"You both would be dead, and Harry would be an orphan. Moreover, we would have been stuck in that stupid world," Uzumaki hissed. Potter just dropped his head forward.

"No matter how many times I've been told this, I still think I could have changed something. No matter how many times I'm forgiven, I can't forgive myself for not being there, Botan." Tears were gathered at the man's eyes. He blinked and they began to slip down his face.

"Merlin, I will always love Lily and feel the guilt for leaving her that night. I should have come home earlier, I should have but…" Potter choked on the words. He kept his head bowed while he held tightly to his wand.

Gai gave a sad smile while Uzumaki shook her head and looked away. Severus didn't feel any satisfaction for the confession. He just felt like his stomach dropped.

"James," Uzumaki began after she let him grieve for a moment longer. "Lily's forgiven you, we've all forgiven you."

Severus closed his eyes at the reminder. Potter had died and been with Lily again, if only for a moment.

Potter gave a teary laugh and wiped at his tears. "I'm starting to regret telling you what happened when I died," he laughed.

"Yes, well, my sister was always perceptive and smart. You really ought to take her advice," Uzumaki said this pointedly and Potter shifted in discomfort while blushing.

Right, Lily told Potter to get married again while they were together in the afterlife… "When exactly did she tell you to pursue another if she was going to escort you to the afterlife?"

Uzumaki looked over at Severus in surprise while Potter began spluttering. Despite her surprise, the long-necked woman replied, "It's more like Lily was telling him he should have gone after—"

Potter flailed spastically and tried to cover Uzumaki's mouth. Uzumaki danced out of his way while laughing and Gai began chuckling. The wheel-chair bound man was now saying something loudly in his native language that caused Potter to trip and fall on his face.

"It's not like that!" Potter practically shrieked as he got back up. Uzumaki and Gai shared a look, as if to say "uh-huh, sure."

"You are all slightly insane, aren't you?" Severus commented. He was beginning to think he was insane as well. Perhaps this was all some fever dream?

"That's the Elemental Nations for you," Potter replied with a sigh. His composure was back in check.

Uzumaki smirked, "I would say the same for your magical community."

Potter reluctantly nodded his head in consent. "Let's just say chakra makes people crazy, balanced or unbalanced."

"Fine," Uzumaki agreed.

Her husband was smiling and had his head titled back to look up at her. He said something in his native language, and Uzumaki's expression softened. There was a soft dusting of color to her cheeks. She replied in her native language and the couple shared a sickeningly adoring look. Severus had to look away.

In looking away, Severus caught Potter's gaze. The man was also looking away from them with his nose scrunched up. Severus raised an eyebrow. Potter waved his hand in a dismissive manner.

Eventually, the wife and husband broke whatever sentimental romantic thing they were doing. Uzumaki coughed and began to maneuver her husband's wheel chair so they could leave. "Yes, uh, well, we'll be seeing you later tonight."

When Potter looked at her in confusion, the woman made an exasperated expression. "Really, James?! You've forgotten about the celebration tonight?"

Potter's eyes widened "That's tonight?!"

Uzumaki shook her head—her blonde locks swishing slightly. "You'd lose your head if it wasn't attached," she muttered.

"I've had a lot going on, Botan."

Uzumaki hummed. "Well, Rokudaime will be giving a speech, and you know how he is about giving those. He'll need the support."

Potter nodded his head but looked over to Severus a little anxiously. Uzumaki rolled her eyes.

"Either you trust Spinner's End to tag along and make a scene, or you miss the celebration and stay in this stupid tent. Your call, James."

With that said, Uzumaki wheeled her husband out of the tent and Potter was left contemplating his choices.

"By all means, do not let me keep you from celebrating," Severus drawled as he looked up at the tent ceiling.

"Well, considering you're my ward right now, I don't have much choice…"

"Pardon?"

Potter sighed. "Kakashi-san only lifted the guard from you because I said I would be watching you. You're my responsibility."

Severus glared at him. "I am not suicidal," he hissed.

Potter's eyes widened. "You heard that!?"

Severus just folded his arms over his chest and glared at Potter.

Potter sighed and plopped back down in his chair. "Of course you did. You've always had a knack for hearing things you shouldn't."

Severus felt like he had just been slapped and physically flinched. If he hadn't overheard Sybil's prophecy…

"Ah, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. You know I had nothing to do with what Sirius pulled on you."

Severus closed his eyes. "I will likely never forgive your friends for that, but I know not to blame you…or Lupin."

"I don't think Lupin's fully forgiven Sirius yet, either." Potter looked thoughtful. "I don't think I have either."

"And yet he's Harry's Godfather," Severus pointed out.

"Moony refused even though Lily and I both wanted him to be Godfather, just like he refused Secret Keeper." There was regret on Potter's face. "I even tried to convince her to make you his godfather, but you know Lily."

"She never forgave me," Severus whispered, his stomach twisting painfully.

"No, she did forgive you. She knew it was how you protected yourself, but it didn't change that she felt betrayed. It didn't change that she believed you were a Death Eater."

Severus looked off to the side and felt the sting of those words. He deserved that. After all he had done, he deserved this pain.

"And that's why I suggested suicide watch," Potter muttered. Severus looked back at him with a glare. Potter raised his hand up in a "no-harm-meant" gesture. Severus wanted to retort but Potter was quick to continue. "Look, you've had a near death experience, learned some unbelievable things, realized how insignificant we all are in the face to destiny, and probably are remembering a million things about Lily. That is a sure fire recipe to make anyone contemplate if their lives have meaning. Plus, I can only imagine what the tsukiyomi did to you."

"The what?"

"This whole world was under an illusion—except for those protected by Naruto and Kurama," Potter added the latter part to amend his statement.

"I was in an illusion that used my own memories to keep me trapped under it."

"That's the eternal tuskiyomi. It was going to be used to make us all subservient to this rabbit goddess, but Naruto-kun stopped it." James was smiling with pride again. "He stopped the end of the world with his team."

"Is that the celebration tonight?" Severus asked. He was thankful that he was not trapped under that illusion and he supposed he had Potter's adoptive son to thank for that.

"Yes. It's a celebration of all those who fought and gave their lives, and a celebration of the Five Great Nations' Alliance."

"Did…Did many die?" the potions master asked slowly.

Potter only nodded and looked away from him.

"You should go to it, and…I would like to give this Naruto my thanks."

Potter looked up at him with wide eyes before smiling softly. "Of course, Snape. I'll help you get ready."

* * *

**TBC**

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**A/N: **I know several readers may be upset that harry will be going Hogwarts, but I tried to lay the rationale out. 1) They know the prophecy will come into play at some point, so why risk their new family. As you saw with the Pein battle, wizards can sort of keep pace with ninja because otherwise that's just ridiculous and unbalanced. 2) They are hoping Gai can be healed with magic because magic can do things chakra can't. 3) Why not gain stuff from the wizard and muggle world that Konoha doesn't have already! 4) Let Harry be a kid because even with the war over, he'll still be trained as a mercenary.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the update. With love ~ depressedchildren


	7. Chapter 6: Dinner with Mercenaries

**Disclaimer: **The _Harry Potter _and _Naruto _series belong to their respective authors. I owe nothing and do not profit from this except in writing experience.

**Summary: **In an attempt to find the missing Potters, Severus Snape goes through an experimental magic ritual—one that opens up a multidimensional gate. When he survives the ritual, he finds himself in a strange world with the loudest and most confusing family he had ever seen.

**A/N: **I had half of this finished for a _long _time, but it was difficult to think of the dialogue at times; hope it feels organic. Thank you to all those who have read, reviewed, and put this on alert or favorite ~ much love, depressedchildren

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**Chapter 6: **Dinner with Mercenaries

* * *

Severus could tell when people were getting ready to leave for the celebration. There would be a burst of sound and movement from outside the tent, and then the area would get quieter. Potter, had remained in the tent with Severus, but thankfully begun to read a book when Severus expressed a desire for quiet. The Potions Master had needed to reflect on all he had learned and occlude; of course, he had not thought Potter would so diligently leave Severus to his silence and now he was bored.

Like that Hokage person, Potter was reading the book backwards and seemed genuinely engrossed. Severus didn't want to be the one to break the silence, but there was only so much one could occlude on, and it was clear others were leaving for the festivities.

Scowling, he swallowed his pride and broke the silence. "Planning to be fashionably late?"

"Hmm?" Potter responded while using a finger to hold his place in the book and look up at Severus.

"It sounds like most people are heading to this celebration," Severus remarked in as bored a tone as he could manage. He could hear his own anxiety though and wanted to curse himself. He was curious about these strange people Potter and his son had lived amongst for the past decade, and he was sure he'd learn more at this celebration than Potter and his associates were willing to tell him.

"Oh, is it getting so late?" Potter looked down to his wrist where there was some kind of watch and chuckled while shaking his head. "Those are just the early birds. You know, the one's who can't travel to the frontline quickly or think they can get a spot close to the Kages if they're early."

"And you have no such concerns, even though I will be traveling with and am an invalid?" Severus remarked dryly.

"I was just going to apparate, and figured we would be sitting with the other Uzumakis in a Konoha section."

"So people are going back to division so quickly?" he remarked. It was clear that the battle they were celebrating had required everyone to work together. It was odd they were dividing up again.

"That's just for eating—while we're more united, paranoia dies hard." At Severus quizzical expression, Potter elaborated, "We might be at peace but everyone is going to be worried about being poisoned by other nations, so each nation will likely eat together to reduce the chance of poisonings. Then most people will be traveling among the groups to mingle."

"It must remind you of home," Severus commented.

"I'd think it would remind you more of home," Potter countered with a smirk. Severus felt his mouth twitch slightly in one corner. Navigating pureblood society when being a half-blood or "blood traitor" was certainly a study in the art of paranoia and two-faced acts.

"Assuming these 'Kages' are located in a different area, how will your _friend _know you even attended?" Severus eased back into the cot, a bit proud of his jab.

"Kakashi will sense when I apparate, and then likely come over when he has time. I doubt he will last more than a half-hour with the other Kages before fleeing." Potter chuckled slightly and shook his head in a fashion that said he found his friend's anti-social behavior endearing.

"How long have you known him?" Severus asked slowly. He was genuinely curious.

"Ever since I got here," Potter replied as if this should have been obvious to Severus.

"But _how _did you meet or even begin to…be friendly." How could Potter have a Slytherin friend?

Potter sighed and closed his book fully—up until this point he had been prepared to continue reading. "When we arrived we had claimed to be from a clan that had been wiped out…what? thirty-plus years ago?" Potter tilted his head to the side as he tried to remember the exact number. He gave up after a moment and shook his head. "Anyways, there was only one member of the clan left in Konoha and that immediately put us under suspicion."

"Right, everyone here is paranoid," Severus quipped.

"Well, it's a nation of mercenaries," Potter said with a shrug. He then shook his head with a wistful smile and sigh. "We were under watch for a long time. While blood work showed we were genuine—er well, Botan and the kids were genuine—they didn't fully trust we weren't affiliated with another village."

"And your Hokage friend was one of these watchmen?"

"Ah, yeah, you could say so." Potter shrugged again and then stood up. He wasn't going to elaborate.

Severus sighed and stared up at the tent ceiling.

"Come on, let's go see if we can find a change of clothes for you," Potter commented with his hand held out for Severus to grab.

"Can't you just transfigure something?" Severus asked as he stared at the offered hand like it was suspect.

"I will likely get drunk and lose concentration, so unless you want the transfiguration to drop…." Potter trailed off.

"You are going to get drunk?! You have a child, who I presume will be present!"

"You can't exactly refuse a drink from a superior without being incredibly rude," Potter rebutted. Severus just stared in disbelief.

Potter shifted and added awkwardly, "Gai will be watching the kids and they will go to bed before the drinking gets too bad." He didn't sound so sure about the last bit.

"No one will expect me to drink, correct?" Severus asked as he finally accepted Potter's help to stand.

"Ah…no they probably will, if only to get you to lower your guard and then interrogate you," Potter replied as he steadied Severus.

"And if I refuse?" he asked as Potter got the crutches from where they were leaning against a support pole.

"Anko will likely poison you, same with Genma…" Potter trailed off as if running through a list of likely poisoners.

"Truly?"

"Yes," Potter chirped. "You are an unknown threat and are being rude. They've poisoned people for less."

"Should I worry about your son poisoning his classmates?"

"Only for good natured pranks," Potter replied as he began to lead Severus out of the tent.

Severus sighed heavily and hoped he would make it through the evening intact.

…

The sun had begun to lower in the sky and cast the world in oranges and pinks when the festivities were to begin. They were held in a valley that had been flattened by the battles. From the crest of the hill, Severus saw eight or nine groupings of tables with what seemed like hundreds of people. The tables were made of stone, likely created by earth manipulators, and were filled with turning discs that held various foods. There were also numerous jugs stationed along the tables with saucer like cups.

Potter apparated them once more, and they were at one of the outer clusters of tables. Now closer, Severus could see there were braziers set in between the clusters of tables, and above the tables were strings of paper lights set up between poles. There were also these black objects with some sort of mesh and an odd metal thing connected to it.

When Severus looked at it questioningly, Potter answered the unasked question. "Those are speakers, they will project what the Kages say from the center cluster."

"Really?"

"Yes. See the metal boxes the speakers are connected to, that's a generator but it also gets the short wave radio signals from the headsets the Kages will be wearing."

"The headsets are used for missions, but some of our engineers refitted them to work for events like this," E-Uzumaki said from behind them. "It's about time you showed up James—I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold your spot." She wore a stern expression, and when she looked over at Severus it soured further.

Severus returned the look before examining those gathered at this low table. Gai was propped against an upraised stone so he could sit at the table. The young girl, Tai, sat in his lap and was talking rapidly with the man. Beside Gai was Daichi and across from the blonde boy was Harry. The two boys were playing some sort of game. There were open place settings beside Harry for Potter and presumably Severus.

"I see you're trusting Spinner's End to not make a scene?" Uzumaki drawled as she sat down beside her husband.

"That and I'm hoping Genma will go easy on me tonight," Potter replied with a laugh. Gai gave a boisterous laugh and Uzumaki snorted.

Severus narrowed his gaze slightly at Potter. "Is this about poisoning or drinking?"

Potter gave a sheepish smile and laugh before quickly walking to sit next to his son. Uzumaki and Gai laughed a little louder. The two boys paused their game and looked at the adults in confusion.

"What's Genma-san gonna do?" Daichi asked loudly. Tai looked just as confused as her brother and cousin.

"Nothing!" Potter replied hastily and made a gesture for Severus to sit down beside him.

As Severus was hobbling toward the table, a voice spoke up beside Daichi. There hadn't been anyone there but suddenly there was. The man wore a bandana covering his hair and he had one of those deadly needles in between his lips. The man was saying something in that foreign language and had a smile that just said he was going to cause mischief. Gai turned his head and smiled broadly at the man. The bandana wearing man clapped his hand on Gai's shoulder and they presumably shared a greeting.

Severus looked over at Potter. "I'm going to assume you won't cast a translating spell," he commented and Potter gave him a shit eating grin in response. He sighed and looked down at the table. How exactly was he supposed to sit here with a broken leg?

Potter was suddenly standing beside him and grabbed his shoulder. "You'll need to bend your good leg while keeping the other straight." Were Severus' thoughts so obvious or did Potter realize he couldn't sit without assistance? "That way, I'll help you to the ground." Severus scowled. "Come on, I got you. You can hand the crutches to Harry."

Severus watched as the boy immediately got up and held his hands out for the crutches. Scowling more, Severus balanced as best he could on his good leg and awkwardly handed over the crutches. He was close to toppling, but Potter caught him under the arms—the amputated arm just catching his right side, while Potter's left arm fully curled around the joint. His back was pressed tight to Potter's chest, but at least he wasn't falling.

"Okay, start bending your leg," Potter instructed and Severus did as told. The closer he got to the ground, the farther away Potter's chest became—of course, by then the man was only holding him up on the left side and Severus was becoming less balanced.

"Harry," Potter called, and quickly Severus' right side was supported again. Eventually, he was seated with his bad leg stretched out before him and his good one pulled up to his chest—it was uncomfortable but still possible to sit.

"Botan, can you raise the table a little?" Potter asked and the woman sighed before moving her hands in some kind of series of signs. The stone table rose a little higher. "Thank you," Potter chirped.

"Okay, Snape, we're going to slide your leg under the table. I recommend you fold the other leg like Botan." Severus scowled and looked back over at the blonde woman. She was smirking and sitting with her legs crossed like a pretzel. Severus' body was not meant to bend in such ways, but it gave him more balance once situated. "If you need a back rest, just ask Botan and she'll make one."

"Don't make promises for other people," Uzumaki retorted and Potter shook his head while Harry laughed into his hands.

"I would rather not," Severus replied. "I imagine Uzumaki will make sure there is some sharp rock to poke me in the spine."

"You're quick to get with the program," Uzumaki said with a smirk—it almost looked approving.

"And…the bickering commences," Potter drawled as he sat down beside Severus. He shook his head.

"We're not 'bickering,'" the blonde woman responded. "We're just both aware of how things are." Potter snorted and Severus had to sigh.

Rather than engaging in further "conversation" with Lily's horrid sister, Severus examined those seated at this cluster of tables. Most of the people present wore navy blue jumpsuits with green vests, but there were the occasional individual wearing something different. For example, there was a dark haired woman—wait was her hair purple?—wearing a trench coat over a short mesh dress. She was not the only provocatively dressed woman present but the first to catch his eye. The purple haired woman caught him looking at her and she gave him a positively devious and predatory smile. He paled and immediately looked away from her but a shudder still went down his spine.

Potter was laughing with his family at something a tan man with a scar across the bridge of his nose was saying. He wore the typical uniform and had his hair pulled back in a short spikey pony-tail. Severus raised an eyebrow questioningly at Potter.

The bespectacled man perked up and gestured between the scarred man and Severus while speaking rapidly in that foreign language. He then repeated what he said in English. "This is Iruka, he is a teacher at the academy and was Naruto-kun's first teacher. He's also been teaching Harry and Daichi." Potter scratched the back of his head. "Really, he's taught all the key Konoha combatants."

"Those from Naruto's class and on, yes," Uzumaki commented with a fond smile.

"Like I said, the key combatants," Potter replied with playful smirk.

"What does that make Kakashi-jisan then?" Harry piped in.

"Or the Kages?" Daichi added.

Potter dropped his head forward and sighed. "Hypocrites." The two boys started to cackle. Severus raised another eyebrow and Potter obliged. "They've been commenting on how the younger generations had carried us to victory not the older generations, but of course, when _I _make that joke…" Potter trailed off and shook his head.

The Iruka person just finished saying something to Tai, when he directed his attention to Severus. He spoke rapidly in his native language and Potter translated.

"He's asking how you deal with pranksters given the dangerousness of your class."

"You told him what I teach?" Severus asked a little uneased. Did these people know about magic and potions? Well, obviously they did given Potter healed with magic, but still…it made Severus uneasy given how muggle these people appeared.

"I told him you basically teach chemistry but where mistakes can lead to explosions."

"Chemistry is a muggle science, right?" Potter nodded in confirmation, so Severus hummed as he thought over the other teacher's question.

"You can tell Mr. Iruka that I have developed a sixth-sense for troublemakers and prevent such things from happening in my class."

Potter chuckled and translated. The scarred man perked up more before speaking rapidly. "He knows exactly what you mean. He's stopped so many pranks, he says he can smell a prank brewing before it even has a chance to occur." And so, Severus found himself sharing stories with Iruka through James as translator. Iruka was beginning to explain a technique he developed that allowed him to track wayward students when a high pitched ringing came from the odd boxes—speakers, Severus reminded himself.

"The Kages are going to speak," Potter whispered as everyone in their cluster began to settle down and quiet.

The ringing stopped—feedback Potter explained—and an aged voice began to address the people. Apparently this was the Tsuchikage with opening statements commending the Five Nations and their efforts. Potter spoke quietly and summarized what was being said instead of translating. A woman spoke next—the Mizukage—and shared a message of unity and growth. It appeared everyone was planning for these alliances to persist. A detached, almost emotionless and gruff voice spoke next—the Kazekage—about friendship, perseverance, and love. A louder and heartier voice spoke next—the Raikage—about glory and honor of those who fought and fell. Last was a familiar (almost lazy) voice that talked about the sacrifices each nation made and then read the names of the fallen soldiers. It was somber and quiet for a long time after Potter's Kage friend stopped speaking. Another voice piped in after an appropriately long silence, and this was of a woman. She sounded tired and winded, but she made a toast Potter did not translate. Everyone raised their drinks—the adults had saucers filled with a clear liquid while the children had water or tea—before saying something under their breaths and drinking.

Severus assumed they were saying prayers of some sort for the dead, so he also raised the saucer and drank. The drink was stronger than he anticipated, so he had to cough but still downed it like the other adults at the table. Uzumaki quickly refilled Severus' cup with a smirk. He raised an eyebrow but got no further response.

The tired woman spoke one more time and there was a chorus of "icky-something" from everyone gathered. Severus raised an eyebrow in question toward Potter.

"It's a lot like that muggle tradition of religious people but it isn't religious here."

"Grace?" Severus muttered with a sour taste on his tongue. His father was "religious" and used that to justify the abuse he hurled at Severus and his mother.

Potter frowned slightly. "It's not a religious thing here, just a cultural…" Potter trailed off and made a circular motion with his left hand. "You know what I mean, right?" Potter gave up on finding the correct word and gave a sheepish smile.

"You were so articulate by calling 'saying grace' as a religious 'thing'" Severus sneered. "Why not continue the trend by saying a 'cultural thing?'"

"He has you there, Tousan," Harry piped up from where he was filling bowl with different items from the small turning dais in the center of the table. Uzumaki was preparing food from the spinning trivet-like object for her husband and daughter. In fact, everyone was grabbing food off the various spinning trays and putting them into a bowls filled with rice.

The Iruka person was sitting beside Severus now, and smiled as he gestured with his metal chopsticks to the tray-trivet-thing closest to them. Merlin, Potter's inarticulate mannerisms were catching. Iruka began saying something but Potter was focusing on his son, and so Severus was just lost as the scarred man continued to gesture at various dishes. Was he trying to tell Severus what they were? This was quickly becoming a headache.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Severus turned toward Potter. "This is not tenable, Potter. How am I to communicate if I must rely on you or your family? Why not cast a translation spell?" Severus asked

Potter paused in putting vegetables into his son's bowl and looked over at him surprised. "Have you ever cast a translation spell before?"

"No, but they've existed for centuries. Surely you know one!" he snapped.

"I do, but I'm surprised you'd even want to risk it," Potter replied slowly.

Severus raised one eyebrow. "Pardon?" His tone might have been defensive.

Potter set his lips into a line as he thought of a response. "Translation spells can only be cast on the caster," Potter began slowly.

"And I am not trusted with a wand," Severus sighed.

"Yes, but even if you were, it wouldn't be useful here," Potter gestured to those sitting around them. Severus just raised an eyebrow in challenge, and Potter took a sip of his alcohol. "You also don't seems the sort to take such risks."

"Risk, you say. How could there possibly be risks involved with a translation spell?"

Potter opened his mouth to respond then closed it and shook his head. "You've never studied translation spells, have you?" he asked as he set down the saucer of alcohol.

"I haven't had need of them until now," Severus nearly growled. Was Potter calling him stupid or reckless?! He wasn't some Gryffindor!

Potter laid his hand flat on the table. "Right," he began slowly, "so translation spells work only on the caster because the caster is essentially…" Potter trailed off and looked up and off to the right as he tried to come up with the words. "You essentially are casting your intentions and thoughts out to those in a radius around you. So really, the translation is that when you speak, you are also projecting your thoughts or intentions to the other person. It's almost like the opposite of legilimency."

Potter paused and looked to Severus, "Does that make any sense?" He was almost grimacing.

Severus closed his eyes slowly as he paled. "If I were to cast a translation spell, it would project my intentions to the recipients—connecting my surface thoughts to theirs. But it would be an open ended connection and unprotected."

"Exactly! You'd be more prone to legilimency yourself," Potter replied enthusiastically. Severus opened his eyes and gave the one-armed man an unimpressed look. He smiled sheepishly. "Ah-ha-ha, um," Potter coughed and shifted slightly. "It also doesn't really work on them since you are actively altering how they perceive what they hear and they're trained to shut that down," Potter elaborated and Severus sighed more heavily.

"So if I want to communicate, I'll have to learn a completely new language or rely on one of your family members," Severus drawled, and Potter had the audacity to smile cheerfully and nod. "This isn't just some attempt to infuriate or keep me in the dark?" Potter's smile fell at Severus' addition and shrugged. Merlin, give him strength…

"Neh, why don't you ask Iruka-sensei to teach you some things!" Harry piped in. Potter perked up as well and began to speak over Severus to Iruka who laughed and nodded before saying something else.

"Ah, Iruka was trying to teach you the different parts of the dishes but you lost your temper."

"I did not lose my temper," Severus snapped at Potter, which made Uzumaki choke on a laugh.

Severus, for the record, did not blush at the pointed looks he received. He especially was not blushing or looking contrite when he turned back to the scarred man and gestured for him to resume the lesson.

Iruka was patient but now that the speeches were over, everyone was talking, laughing, and overall celebrating loudly. He was perhaps partway through the meal, and while he couldn't remember any of the dish names, he understood when something had carrot or onion or eggplant in it. Iruka was beginning to transition to greetings, but it was growing increasingly difficult to concentrate, especially when a group mercenaries began howling in laughter not far from them. Iruka looked over at them amused before turning back to Severus with a kind smile, but Severus also knew the man wanted to join their festivities rather than teach some foreigner.

Severus glanced over at the Uzumakis who were talking animatedly in whatever language the natives spoke here. Well, this was genuinely awkward. Severus held his hand up to Iruka in an attempt to indicate he wait. The man raised an eyebrow but paused in his instruction. Severus then turned toward Potter and coughed slightly to get the wizard's attention. The one-armed man turned toward Severus with an eyebrow raised.

"Potter, I do not wish to monopolize Mr. Iruka's time. Surely he would rather spend the festivities with his comrades," Severus said as diplomatically as he could. He even gestured to the boisterous group of mercenaries.

Potter regarded him for a moment before smiling. "Thank you for being so considerate. I'll tell him now." Potter then leaned behind Severus to talk to Iruka while the Potions Master tried to be neutral.

Iruka clapped Severus on the shoulder and nodded with a cheerful smile and said something. "He said it was a pleasure to teach you and when things settle down he'd be happy to continue lessons," Potter translated.

"Thank you," Severus replied to the scarred man, and Potter proceeded to translate with a fifteen second series of sounds—surely that was not how "thank you" was said. Severus narrowed his gaze at Potter when he pulled back to the table. "Do not put words in my mouth," Severus growled.

Potter gave him another shit-eating grin and shrugged before gesturing back to Iruka who was holding up his saucer of alcohol. "He wants to toast. Hold your glass lower than his when you clink them together," Potter explained. Severus furrowed his brow put did as Potter said and Iruka practically beamed before downing the saucer. Severus only coughed slightly when he finished the drink. Uzumaki promptly filled his cup back up. He narrowed his gaze at her and she just smirked.

"So, you've told me lots about Hogwarts but Daichi hasn't heard anything. Could you tell him what it's like?" Harry spoke up in an obvious attempt to rope Severus into the conversation and likely glean even more knowledge about the school.

"Well, what is it you'd like to know, Mr. Uzumaki?" Severus asked with his most professorial tone.

For the next hour, as the food on the spinning trivets were devoured, Severus and Potter explained what Hogwarts was like with the occasional addition from Uzumaki who recalled Lily's impressions. The boys eventually coaxed out stories about the best pranks he saw during his years teaching, and then Potter asked about the most exciting Quidditch games in the past decade.

This led to Daichi asking: "What is Quidditch?"

"It's only the best wizarding sport to exist!" Potter exclaimed.

"Then why haven't you talked about it?" Harry asked cheekily

"Because then I'd miss it too much," Potter replied almost primly.

Harry practically rolled his eyes before switching focus slightly. "So what exactly makes it a sport?"

"What makes it a sport!?" Potter repeated in mock outrage. "How are you my son?"

"You've literally never mentioned this game before," Harry retorted though he was beginning to smile.

"Of course I mentioned it! I told you I was a Chaser back in school," Potter replied only to receive a confused look.

"Maa, and here I thought it was a drinking term," an almost lazy voice spoke up from behind them. Uzumaki promptly snorted on what she was drinking and began coughing. Gai and the children looked confused but were laughing at what was clearly a joke. Potter blushed bright red, and Severus gave the masked Kage-person behind them an appraising look.

The masked man was crouching and had his visible eye doing that squinty smile he seemed fond of. "I thought I'd check in on you all." He paused and shifted his focus to Gai. "How are you?" he asked seriously.

"Fine, Rival," Gai said with a soft almost sad smile. He then smiled more broadly. "Come! Sit!" he practically shouted. "James was to tell story of Youth and manly competition!"

"Maa… I would but he's already told me about Quiddicth and I have no interest in hearing about it again." The man promptly vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"Oi!" Potter called after him before cursing the man under his breath.

"So, I think that confirms you've never mentioned Quiddicth to me before because Kakashi-jisan shamed you from ever talking about it again," Harry chirped.

"It is a fairly ridiculous game," Severus conceded, mostly to rile Potter up further.

"You too?" Potter addressed Severus betrayed. "But you were always decked out with House pride during games!"

"Only Gryffindor-Slytherin games. I could have cared less for any of the other house games."

"Is the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry still so bitter?" Harry chimed in.

"Yes, though it isn't much of a rivalry."

Potter just rolled his eyes before perking up. "Alright!" he slapped the table in his enthusiasm, "you want to know about the best Wizarding sport in the world! Well—"

"It's also the only wizarding sport," Severus interjected with a smirk. Potter dropped his head forward as if in despair.

"None of you are going to let me defend the game, are you?" he practically whined. Harry and his cousins began laughing and Severus picked up the saucer of alcohol to take a sip as he watched Potter flail. This was very entertaining. Across the table from him, Uzumaki was trying to hide a smile while her husband just smiled fondly at those around him.

"Ooh! Are we picking on Oji-san!" a new and _very _loud voice exclaimed in mostly English. Not a second later, a man in an orange jumpsuit with a white trench coat overtop appeared behind Gai and Uzumaki. One of his arms was missing and he had markings on his cheeks like whiskers. He promptly squished between Uzumaki and Gai and leaned over the table.

"Wah, you have same chicken katsu left!" The blonde immediately swiped some spare chopsticks to pick at the fried chicken on the raised tray. The young man then spun the tray with his chopsticks after popping the chicken into his mouth. "And vegetable tempura!"

"Naruto-kun," Potter said fondly while Uzumaki slapped the young man upside the head and said, "Don't talk with your mouth full!"

The blonde leaned back, swallowed, and laughed sheepishly. "Sorry Oba-san," he said sheepishly, "but the Bastard ate all the tempura, and Lee-kun had all the chicken, and there was no ramen!" The last thing was said like it was the greatest travesty in the world. Everyone began chuckling at these antics.

"Neh, Onii-san, they probably couldn't make enough to properly celebrate you," Harry teased.

"Ah, you're probably right," the blonde responded jovially. His bright blue eyes then landed on Severus. "Oh, you're that guy who came from the place Oji-san is from. But you're not a Death…Death what's-er, right?" the young man turned to Potter.

"Death Eater, and yes he is, but he's a double agent," Potter replied before Severus could obfuscate. Severus gave Daichi and Harry severe looks, but the whiskered young man was already moving on.

"Kinda like the Bastard's brother!" he exclaimed, and Potter nodded. The blonde whirlwind, as Severus was beginning to think of him, set his chopsticks down and held out his hand to Severus. "Nice to meet ya, I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

"It is good to place a face to the infamous nii-san," Severus replied while he gestured with his eyes to Harry.

"Yep, that's me. Big brother Naruto!" The blonde jumped over the table and grabbed Harry in a headlock with his stump and began ruffling his hair. When Harry began to protest, he switched over to Daichi (jumping over the table once more).

When they all settled back down, with Naruto now sitting beside Daichi and gesturing for someone to pass his chopsticks, Severus cleared his throat. "My benefit as a spy among the enemy's ranks only remains such if _no one _knows. Am I clear?" Severus made sure to use his most menacing voice, the one that had fifth years ducking.

"We know how to keep secrets," Daichi said with a pout before fighting with Naruto over some leftover food on the central tray. They were stealing the pieces from each other's chopsticks.

"Speaking of you spying," Harry began while ignoring his cousin and adopted-brother, "do you have a specific…behavior you have to maintain? Like something to keep the enemies from thinking you're actually a double agent?"

"Yes, and since you are privy to this information, I suggest Potter begin training you both on Occlumency so it is not used against us all."

"I'm not the best at occlumency," Potter confessed while rubbing the back of his head.

Severus let out a put upon sigh. "I can't be seen giving Harry or some no name muggle-born extra attention. You'll have to train them as best you can before the term starts."

"Or…" Potter began, "you could train them until we have to leave this dimension and they can teach you Japanese."

"It's a reasonable compromise," Naruto piped in around another mouthful of food.

"Naruto!" Uzumaki chastised the young man.

"Sorry Oba-san!" the blonde didn't sound sorry. "Neh, I don't know how much help I can be with the trans-dimensional seal until we get working prosthetics from the First's cells."

"You will be invaluable in creating and refining it, even if you might not be able to do the signs to activate it," Uzumaki stated. "Besides, we have—what—three months, Spinner's End?"

"September first, but does time pass the same here?" Severus voiced one of the many concerns lingering at the back of his mind.

"It was the same month and day when we arrived here, but the years are different. So…yes give or take a leap-year," Potter chimed in.

"Hey, we just beat a crazy rabbit goddess, I think we'll be able to hand trans-dimensional travel," Naruto boasted.

"Don't get cocky," Uzumaki chimed in with a smile she was trying to hide while Gai laughed openly. The children giggled and Potter smiled fondly at the young man. Naruto just smiled more broadly.

"Well, I gotta go make sure the Bastard isn't being anti-social or pissing off anyone from Kumo," the blonde said as he stood up from the table. The Uzumakis all said their own parting words when Severus remembered why he had come to this.

"Ah! Mr. Uzumkai," he called out, and the young turned around with a bewildered look on his face.

"Just call me Naruto…" he trailed off. "Spinner's End isn't really your name, right?" he asked.

Uzumaki hid her smirk behind her saucer of alcohol and Severus just glared more at her. "Professor Severus Snape."

"Oh, you're a sensei. Cool!" The young man shifted awkwardly like he was wanting to go join the other groups around them.

Severus coughed but nodded his head. "I wanted to thank you. When I arrived, I was trapped within that…illusion."

The blonde blinked for a brief moment as if taken aback. "Oh, well it wasn't just me. It was a group effort," he said while rubbing the back of his head. "I'll bring them all by later so you can thank 'em too if you want." Like many of the other mercenaries around, Naruto promptly ran away as quick as a top of the line racing broom.

"So, you met nii-san," Harry said like he was waiting for an assessment. Severus just raised an eyebrow and Harry pouted for a second.

A lull formed before Potter spoke up, "What had we been talking about before?"

"You were desperately trying to defend Quidditch and failing," Severus commented as he took another sip of the alcohol—it was growing on him. He also didn't want to discuss the persona he wore at school just yet—at least not until the boys had some occlumency training under their belts.

Potter looked offended, though there was a playfulness to it. "No I wasn't. No one was letting me present my case."

"Very well counselor, the floor is yours," Severus drawled with a smirk and a gesture to the table before them. Uzumaki smirked more, her eyes practically danced with mirth.

Potter pouted for a moment before straightening up. "Very well. I will present the first piece of evidence that Quidditch is a game." He was using a sonorous voice that mimicked the former Lord Black when he was at Ministry meetings. Severus snorted into his saucer as he had been about to take another sip. "Quidditch requires balance, hand-eye coordination, reflexes, strategic thinking, and stamina."

"And a high pain threshold for bludgers," Severus quipped as he reached for a glass of water.

"Plus a good broom if I'm not mistaken," Uzumaki chimed in. "Those things were dreadfully expensive."

"And they've only gotten more expensive," Severus added.

"What makes a broom good?" Dudley asked confused, Harry was also confused.

"Its speed, balance, hex-proofing, and durability," Potter rattled off.

"Does the school issue standard brooms?" Harry asked.

Severus gave a bitter laugh. "Of course not! Most students bring their own from home, and if they can't then they use models decades old."

Harry looked unimpressed, "So…what you're saying is that kids from wealthier families can buy their victory?"

Severus began to nod his head but Potter made a flailing gesture. "No, that's not what that means! There's more to the game than the speed of the broom." The rest of the table gave Potter skeptical looks and he spluttered for a moment before landing on an example. "Keepers! Keepers, for example, have to have great reflexes and control over their broom so they can guard all three hoops."

"Having a fast broom helps in covering ground," Severus commented just to spite Potter.

Potter glared at him for a moment before saying, "Beaters need upper body strength and aim."

"And if you can move faster than a bludger, you're fine and won't be hurt," Severus pointed out.

Potter was fully turned to Severus at this point and his face was getting red. "Fine, but chasers need teamwork, coordination, and upper body strength."

"And if they're fast enough to avoid their opponents, then half of that isn't needed," Severus said with a smirk.

Potter threw his hand up in the air before hiding his face in his arms on the table. "Fine, you win!"

"You're not even going to try to defend the Seeker position?" Severus challenged and Potter made a grumbling noise as he shook his head.

"What's the seeker do?" Harry asked amusedly.

"They typically win the game since catching the snitch ends the game and gives the seeker's team an inordinate amount of points," Severus explained.

Harry cocked his head to one side. "So, with the new models of brooms being so fast, it would be like a gennin playing Ninja against a bunch of civilians? That seems really unfair and boring."

Potter whined in protest.

"While I don't understand exactly what your son said, he's correct, Potter," Severus said with a smirk as he sipped at the alcohol.

"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Potter exclaimed as he pulled himself up from the table. "Should we just go back to winged mounts and humming birds?" Potter retorted. He looked close to standing up.

"Perhaps not replacing the snitch, but winged mounts are certainly a possibility," Severus mused aloud and watched as Potter gaped at him. Uzumaki was laughing again which made Potter pout. Gai gave the bespectacled man a sympathetic smile.

"Well, Harry and I will just have to find something to keep us active," Daichi announced and Potter sighed in defeat.

Tai gave a loud yawn at that point which drew everyone's attention back to the little girl. She was practically asleep in her father's lap. Potter looked down at his watch while Uzumaki looked at the increasingly inebriated adults around them.

"I suppose it's time for you kids to go to bed," Uzumaki commented, and the boys began whining. Potter and Uzumaki gave them looks and their protests quieted. "Go say goodbye to Naruto-kun while we get ready to leave," she added. The boys immediately got up and began running away.

Potter raised an eyebrow. "You're not coming back?" he asked almost dejected.

"Well I suppose I could but I'm not sure I'd want to," Uzumaki said slowly while regarding her husband with hungry eyes. Gai caught her gaze and held it heatedly.

Potter began flailing again while he blushed and hid his face. "Okay, got it, go!" Severus just looked away from them all and accidently caught the purple haired woman's attention again. Fortunately, Uzumaki and Gai were done with their flirtations and the woman was helping her husband up and into his wheel chair. Tai was sitting on the ground now with her head laid against the table as she continued to fight sleep.

Once Gai was in the wheel chair and Tai was nestled against his chest, several mercenaries came over. Included in them were the purple haired woman, Iruka, and the bandanna man with the needle. The group exchanged words and the woman bemoaned something or other—actually hanging off of Uzumaki who rolled her eyes in with a fond smile. However, eventually, the family departed and the mercenaries sat down around Potter and Severus. Severus got the distinct feeling he and Potter were prey as the group watched them with broad smiles.

The purple haired woman spoke up first and Potter blushed while stammering some response, to which the woman _imbedded _a chopstick to the table between Potter's thumb and index finger (since his hand had been resting on the stone table). Severus leaned back slightly. The woman just said something with a saccharine smile.

Potter flushed some more and said, "Anko wanted to know, and I quote, 'if you were looking for a shag or just curious.'"

Severus choked on his own spit and began to shake his head no. The woman, Anko, made an exaggerated pout before she was suddenly behind him with her arm wrapped around his chest and her cheek pressed against his cheek. Her ample bosom was pressed to his back and he could not refrain from blushing.

She began saying something in a manner that sounded almost coy to him. Severus glanced at Potter out of the corner of his eye and noted he had dropped his head forward into his hand.

"Anko is doing one of her mind games, and regardless of how you respond she'll turn it against you and embarrass you," the man said tiredly and with a touch of second hand embarrassment.

Severus raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly did Miss Anko say?"

Potter looked up from his hand and raised his eyebrow in question this time.

"Unlike you, I am a Slytherin and am good at mind games," he said with a smirk. Anko, at this point had pulled away from him somewhat but still hat her arm wrapped around his chest. The woman then said something indignantly and Potter placated her with a smile and a few words.

"She had previously asked if you did not find her assets appealing enough."

Severus nodded and turned to face Anko. "Please tell Miss Anko that I am gentleman and would never be so forward with a woman—especially one who is so skilled and deadly."

Potter chuckled but sobered before translating. Anko pulled away pouting and moved back to the other side of the table. When she was seated again, her arms were crossed under her bust. Iruka and the bandanna man were laughing. The woman snapped something at the men and then grabbed the pitcher of alcohol and began to pour some for Severus. She gestured for him to drink with her and he did so. The bandanna man immediately filled the saucer up again and gestured for Severus to toast with him. Potter just leaned back on his arm and smirked.

"I take it he's Genma?" Severus asked after downing the drink. His head was becoming pleasantly fuzzy, which was never good if they were going to continue pushing drinks on him. Potter just nodded and the bandanna man smiled when he heard his name.

Genma said something as he filled up the saucers again and Potter translated. "He's asking if his reputation precedes him," Potter said with an eye-roll before responding. Genma laughed and filled up Potter's saucer too before gesturing for both of them to drink with him.

"Will I really risk poison if I refuse?" Severus asked after he finished that drink. "Because I'm afraid I'll end up with alcohol poisoning if they keep this up." He gestured to both of their already refilled saucers.

"We'll be sipping these for a while before they do more toasts," Potter said dismissively. Severus raised an eyebrow. "I've been drinking with them enough to know the routine."

Iruka was speaking at this point and Potter quickly translated. "He's wondering what else you do in the wizarding world. I think the rumor that you're a spy got out somehow," Potter said nonchalantly. Severus glared at Potter because it was likely him who let that rumor spread. Potter just held his stare with a deadpan look.

Severus relented and discussed abstractly the various surveillance spells he knew. This led to them discussing infiltration practices and how they varied. The mercenaries did not go into much detail and left things fairly vague, but it was still an interesting discussion. Then the conversation shifted into the strangest intelligence missions they had had. Apparently, Genma had once been hired by a farmer to spy on his competition. Iruka shared a misadventure with his genin team (Severus finally knew what that term was) that had led to chasing a duck and entering a cooking competition.

With each story, Severus found himself chuckling and inclined to share his own stories. As Potter predicted, they were causally sipping at the drinks, and it was overall a pleasant time. Then Severus realized he was quite tipsy, and while they had been causally sipping, his saucer had been refilled at least twice. They got him drunk, damn it. Severus was still trying to figure out how exactly that had happened when there was a chorus of "Naruto-kun!" from the people around them.

Sure enough, the whirlwind blonde was back and had several other young adults with him. One had black hair and eyes. His face seemed set in a perpetual frown, but there was a dusting of pink to his cheeks that suggested he had been drinking. A pink-haired young woman stood next to him and was similarly flushed and even swaying slightly. He'd only seen Nymphadora Tonks with pink hair, and yet here was a woman with pink hair too.

"Is she a metamorphmagus?" Severus asked, accidently leaning into Potter's personal space. He quickly rectified that.

"Nope, lots of people have strange hair colors here without needing magic," Potter replied before furrowing his brow. "Who'd you know who's a metamorphmagus?"

"Andromeda Black's daughter. She graduated recently, was in Hufflepuff and decent at potions," Severus said dismissively as he focused his gaze back on the young adults. They were talking rapidly with the other mercenaries. There were a good dozen teens with them.

"Hey, professor guy, these are some of the people who helped with the final fight!" Naruto stated loudly once he noticed he and Potter were done talking. The blonde whirlwind then went through the names and Severus felt his head spinning. He stammered out a thank you, feeling overwhelmed.

Anko and Genma shared a mischievous look before announcing something. Potter didn't need to translate because everyone present was handed more saucers of alcohol. The young adults accepted the saucers with both hands each time, and Severus noted a sort of difference that was shown in the gesture. Severus refrained from groaning as a toast was made.

After _two _toasts that Potter and Severus had to participate in, the young adults were about to head off when the blonde held back. "Neh, Oji-san you might wanna save Kakashi-sensei from Mizukage-dono and Obaa-chan," the blonde said with an almost teasing look. The mercenaries glanced at Naruto when they recognized the various names but otherwise were busy talking with each other or moving to the next group.

Potter raised an eyebrow, his face was flushed at this point. "Oh? Are they talking trade agreements?" he asked amused.

Naruto smirked. "I 'spose that's one way to put it." The suggestive tone made Potter frown and Severus raise an eyebrow.

"Aren't they political leaders? Surely they wouldn't be proposing something inappropriate," Severus said before he could stop himself.

The blonde practically barked with laughter. "I like you, Professor!" the blonde said before sobering and giving Potter a pointed look. "Plenty of people are trying to solidify the peace through political unions," Naruto warned in moment of seriousness before he was back to smiling and laughing boisterously. The young adults were gone and Potter was left frowning. The mercenaries who stayed at the table were still laughing and Severus wondered what exactly was being implied here. However, Anko filled up his saucer again and gestured for him to drink and he forgot what he had been thinking about.

Feeling thoroughly drunk, not quite three sheets to the wind but close, Severus realized he needed to use the restroom. "Potter," he slurred slightly, "where's the restroom?"

Potter hummed before the words caught up. "Oh!" he exclaimed and shot to his feet only to wobble. He then said something to the mercenaries and Iruka was suddenly behind Severus and helping him to his feet while Potter retrieved the crutches. Once they were standing, Potter said something else and Genma pointed off back toward the hill above the valley.

"Alright!" Potter said rather loudly as he pointed toward hill and leaned in near Severus. "They've made some temporary outhouses that way!" he was then walking to get around the table. Severus began to follow suit but stumbled and the crutches nearly slipped out from under him.

Potter did a heel turn and took position by his broken leg. He removed the crutch which nearly sent Severus toppling over, but then threw Severus's arm over his shoulder and supported his weight. "Okay, we're gonna take this slow," Potter said slowly as he tried to not slur.

It was almost surreal as they drunkenly made it back toward the hill. As they walked through celebration, numerous Leaf ninja said things to Potter who replied back with a wave and smile. Overall, it looked like most attendees were flushed from drink and genuinely enjoying themselves.

The hill was the hardest and they both nearly fell over multiple times, but eventually they got to the crest of the hill and realized they had to go downhill now. Potter glared at it and Severus shared the sentiment. Going downhill was going to be worse. Potter pulled out his wand and focused for a long moment before a…did he just conjure a muggle kid's wagon?!

"Alright! I'm not sure how long I can hold this, but we can basically sled down now," Potter said and part of Severus wanted to yell at Potter but the hill was so steep and he had to pee so badly. "This is gonna be a great idea!" Potter cheered and Severus did not have the faculties to disagree.

Once they were both awkwardly situated in the wagon—which resulted in several more near falls and one whack against his cast—they were rolling down the hill. It was only as they were nearing the bottom and a rocky patch that Severus realized this was a very bad idea. Potter seemed to realize this too if his curse was any indication.

Like slow motion, the wagon wheel caught a rock and began tipping them forward and out of it. Potter barely managed to cast a cushioning charm as they were flying out of the wagon. Fortunately, Potter's focus on the wagon dissipated so they weren't hit by it, but they did end up in a tangle of limbs and his crutch was caught under him. Then again, Severus could really only focus on his broken leg and the fact it had been _hit __**multiple times**_! He screamed against the white hot pain

Potter was quick to disentangle himself and was about to cast a spell when he realized now was not the time for intricate medical spell casting. So instead, he just stood there with his wand out while apologizing profusely. Once Severus could breathe again, he sat up and felt much more sober.

"Just get me the fuck up," he hissed, and Potter scrambled to comply. He glared at the mercenaries that had rushed toward them at his screaming. Some began laughing as they turned back around toward the celebration, and others went to help Potter stand Severus up. One helped Severus the rest of the way to the make-shift outhouses while Potter was likely apologizing to those around them.

The pain had definitely sobered Severus up and he was soon able to hobble forward with the crutch by his broken leg and random Leaf mercenary steadying him every now and then. Once at the makeshift constructions the mercenary left him. The outhouse was foul smelling and it appeared someone had vomited in here once. Still, Severus did his business quickly and hurried back out. There appeared to be some sort of soap in a bottle near the makeshift outhouse, which was a relief. He severely hoped there was working plumbing in this dimension.

Done, Severus looked around for Potter but couldn't find him. Where was he supposed to go? Should he go back to the celebration? One glance at the hill and he was shaking his head. He saw some fires in the distance—likely one of the triage areas—so he started hobbling in that direction.

There were copse that he was beginning to skirt around when he heard…English? Curiosity getting the best of him (and perhaps still drunk) he moved a bit closer and listened in.

"…is common, and Mizukage-dono's a nice lady. You could do worse," Potter said with a slur.

"James," there was that lazy voice of the Kakashi-guy but he almost sounded like he was whining.

"No, this is good. It'll ensure a long alliance between our two nations and get the council off your back about heirs," Potter prattled on.

"I don't want to marry her," the Kakashi-kage-person said almost too quietly for Severus to hear.

"Then don't!" Potter said almost dismissively. "Reject the proposal. Merlin, it's not that hard."

"You're not getting it!" the masked man definitely whined this time.

"What's for me to get?!" Potter asked bordering on belligerent.

"Lots!" Kakashi insisted. Potter inhaled like he was going to speak but then his words came out muffled. "No, I'm talking now," Kakashi said firmly with the slightest slur to his words. "Don't bite my hand!" Potter gave a muffled response. "You're being a kid!" Kakashi accused and Potter's response was muffled again.

Severus felt on the verge of laughing—oh, he was definitely tipsy still—at the two friends bickering.

"Will you just listen?" the masked man sounded like he was caught between pleading and exasperation.

"I'm trying to but you were covering my mouth with your hand. By the way, you need to wash those gloves more."

"…James"

"But seriously, you were covering my mouth!"

"Your mouth has nothing to do with your ears," Kakashi retorted. It was silent for a moment, and the man sighed. "When Tsunade-sama and Mei-sama brought this proposal up, I didn't run away, I said no."

"But you always run away from confessions," Potter said confused. "You have no interest in anyone that way or sharing your life, so it's easier to run away than explain that."

"Exactly," Kakashi said relieved, "but now I do want to share my life." Oh…oh no, Severus needed to stop eavesdropping, but his feet weren't moving.

"And maybe it's not the conventional way, but I know I want to live with you and grow old with you, and…I love you," Kakashi said.

"Platonically?" Potter asked.

"Of course, but…more." Kakashi paused like he was searching for words. "Like how you describe your love for Lily."

"And you," Potter said abruptly. "I love you like how I loved Lily. I realized after Pein." It was quiet for a brief moment. "By the way, Lily was way too keen on us being together. I think death made her a yaoi fan or she was always secretly one."

Kakashi began laughing. "Good thing neither of us have interest in _that_. Sakura would be far too pleased."

It was Potter's turn to laugh before he sobered. "I'm glad you understand. I always thought I was alone or somehow wrong."

"I thought I was just too dead inside," Kakashi replied.

Severus stared into the night utterly shocked and feeling awful for listening into such a private moment. But also, Potter was gay?! When the hell did that happen!?

"We should collect the Death Eater spy," Kakashi announced while Severus was still processing.

"I left him by the outhouses."

"No, he's just outside these trees eavesdropping."

Potter squawked and was suddenly coming into sight. Severus tried to move backwards but stumbled. Potter was then in front of him and with an accusing finger pointed in his face. "Y-you! Why were you eavesdropping? Why aren't you by the outhouses?!"

"I wasn't going to climb that hill again," Severus replied as if he was in the right despite definitely being in the wrong. "Besides, if your friend knew I was here, why didn't he say anything?"

"I'm a selfish man," Kakashi said as he stepped out of the copse to join them. His hands were shoved in his pockets and he was smiling with his eye. Potter was confused but Severus quickly picked up the implication.

"Merlin and Morgana, I can barely tolerate Potter!" Severus exclaimed. Just the thought made him want to throw up.

"Is it a jealousy thing or just wanting people to hear?" Potter asked as he turned to Kakashi. "Because you could have just said this near Naruto."

"Bit a both, plus, he'll be more discreet," Kakashi said almost too chipper. Severus just shook his head and began turning around.

"This is insane," he muttered and began to hobble away from the pair, if only for his own sanity.

* * *

**A/N: **To repeat, Kakashi and James are both asexual. And yeah, this is probably my asexual fantasy of finding someone who can love in the same way I do. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the dialogue ~ much love, depressedchildren


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